Naked babies....a sin?

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Ben_Sinner

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Just when I thought I heard it all, apparently St. John Vianney was quoted saying that parents who have their babies lying around the house nude are in sin…

"There are mothers who have so little religion or, if you like, are so ignorant that if they want to show off their baby to some neighbouring mothers, they will show it to them naked. Others, when they are putting on diapers, will leave the babies, for a long period of time, uncovered before everyone. Now even if there is no one present at all, you should not do this. Should you not respect the presence of their Guardian Angels…? Saint Jean Marie Baptiste Vianney

Is there any truth to this?..I can understand showing to others might be risky but even when the baby is alone and in private, it’s sinful?

Does that mean that it is also a sin for us to be nude in private because it might be disrespectful of our guardian angels? What about taking showers? Having sex naked with our spouse? Or going to bed alone on a hot day and wearing nothing but our undergarments?
 
Don’t believe all that you see and nothing that you hear.:cool:
 
There’s no intrinsic sinfulness to being naked in private or for situations that call for having no clothes on. If the quote is authentic, it may be more in the context of “showing off” if that was one’s purpose for disrobing or disrobing their baby.
 
👍

I’d also check the authenticity of this quote. There are plenty of spurious “Saints’ Quotes” that are circulated by atheist or anti-Catholic sites, to make it look like “Aw, those Catholics say the darnedest things!” 😃
 
Where did he call it a sin? Without the context of the rest of the statement, it is hard to say where he was going with the quote. Do you have the source of the quote?
 
St. John Vianny must have spoken to my baby. She hates being naked even for a few seconds so I can change her clothes. When it’s time for a bath, she screams herself red.
 
I don’t think there’s anything wrong with having your baby naked in the home. I think I vaguely remember hearing that quote before but I don’t really believe it.
 
There is no sight more beautiful than a little fat naked baby…or more endearing than a proud mother who thinks her baby is a world beater…I’ve never heard such nonsense…
 
I found the context of the quote. It is from one of his sermons.. I did not read the entire page, but it seems that he was trying to instill in his parishioners that modesty starts from the very beginning, and that parents are obliged to begin to teach it even from infancy.
 
I don’t know about a sin, but I don’t really care for the photographs of naked kids. I’ve even seen people go so far as to have the whole family photographed nude. Really? Is that how you roll at your house? You and your three kids all sit around buck naked? And you feel the need to memorialize it for the public to view? When my daughter was born, the Bella Baby photographer in the hospital wanted to photograph her naked and we told her “no”. Naked and screaming is a little too out-of-sorts for professional photography in my opinion. I don’t know if I’d take it as far as to call it a sin, but I do think it’s in poor taste.
 
RPRPsych said:
👍

I’d also check the authenticity of this quote. There are plenty of spurious “Saints’ Quotes” that are circulated by atheist or anti-Catholic sites, to make it look like “Aw, those Catholics say the darnedest things!” 😃
Click to expand...
“Always verify quotes you see on the Internet,” --Abraham Lincoln.
 
Plus, there’s a benefit to letting their ‘diaper areas’ air out, dry out, etc.

On the other hand, if God intended us to be naked, we would be born that way. 😉

When it comes to teaching modesty from infancy, I think there’s a fine line, because it’s way too easy to turn it into Forbidden Fruit (and we all know what that can do). And wouldn’t that maybe sort of kind of in a way *create * an occasion of sin?
 
Ben_Sinner said:
So we have to catechize babies?
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Of course. We begin teaching, whether it is the faith, life skills, or anything else, from the time the child is born. At first, it is simply doing the proper things and having them learn by watching (we pray, we worship, we behave in a respectable manner, etc). As they get older, it gets more formal-- “These are the prayers we say”, “this is how we worship”, “This is why we do thus and such”.
 
Ben_Sinner said:
Just when I thought I heard it all, apparently St. John Vianney was quoted saying that parents who have their babies lying around the house nude are in sin…

"There are mothers who have so little religion or, if you like, are so ignorant that if they want to show off their baby to some neighbouring mothers, they will show it to them naked. Others, when they are putting on diapers, will leave the babies, for a long period of time, uncovered before everyone. Now even if there is no one present at all, you should not do this. Should you not respect the presence of their Guardian Angels…? Saint Jean Marie Baptiste Vianney

Is there any truth to this?..I can understand showing to others might be risky but even when the baby is alone and in private, it’s sinful?

Does that mean that it is also a sin for us to be nude in private because it might be disrespectful of our guardian angels? What about taking showers? Having sex naked with our spouse? Or going to bed alone on a hot day and wearing nothing but our undergarments?
Click to expand...
I don’t see where he called anything a sin. In any case, a Saint is not infallible and may be mistaken in something they say. I disagree with what he said–there is nothing shameful about babies’ bodies. Besides, what about all those nude figures on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel? Should we cover them up?
 
Allegra said:
I don’t know about a sin, but I don’t really care for the photographs of naked kids. I’ve even seen people go so far as to have the whole family photographed nude. Really? Is that how you roll at your house? You and your three kids all sit around buck naked? And you feel the need to memorialize it for the public to view? When my daughter was born, the Bella Baby photographer in the hospital wanted to photograph her naked and we told her “no”. Naked and screaming is a little too out-of-sorts for professional photography in my opinion. I don’t know if I’d take it as far as to call it a sin, but I do think it’s in poor taste.
Click to expand...
Whoa. I would have never have wanted to sit like that with my family as a kid. Ew.
 
Allegra said:
I don’t know about a sin, but I don’t really care for the photographs of naked kids. I’ve even seen people go so far as to have the whole family photographed nude. Really? Is that how you roll at your house? You and your three kids all sit around buck naked? And you feel the need to memorialize it for the public to view? When my daughter was born, the Bella Baby photographer in the hospital wanted to photograph her naked and we told her “no”. Naked and screaming is a little too out-of-sorts for professional photography in my opinion. I don’t know if I’d take it as far as to call it a sin, but I do think it’s in poor taste.
Click to expand...
That is ridiculous. A whole family photographed naked?

I’ve never heard of such a thing.
 
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