Okay, I guess my stance on this comes down to this statement: Who am I to stand against one thousand, nine hundred, and seventy some odd years of saints, popes, martyrs, fathers, and doctors that stood for these traditions?
As far as the CDF pronouncement, I don’t know how authoritative that is and one would have expected Jimmy Akin to have made mention of it, but in any case, even if we hold that headcoverings “no longer have a normative value,” that doesn’t mean that it shouldn’t still be done. Simply because there is an option to wear them or not doesn’t mean that the Church doesn’t have a preference. A similar situation is in the reception of Holy Communion. Americans are *permitted *to recieve in the hand, but many Church leaders like Francis Cardinal Arinze have expressed a *strong desire *that we should recieve on the tongue. Just like sinning, we have free will to choose whether or not to do the right thing. No one can force this upon us. I would venture to guess that Church leaders would look highly upon women that continue/rediscover this pious tradition. Wouldn’t it be more noble to conform to religious customs rather than fashion ones?
Humans are different from all other creatures in that we are both body and spirit, while animals are only body and angels are only spirit. Because of this, we should aim to please, glorify, and express devotion to God through both of these characteristics. Many in the postconciliar Church seem to believe that the externals should be done away with, but this surely isn’t true and is a characteristically Protestant stance that the internal is all that matters. This is why so many modern Catholics don’t see the value in the Sacraments anymore, especially Confession. They feel as though they can work it out just between God and themselves without the sacramental means of forgiveness given to us by Christ.
The Second Vatican Council’s goal was to rediscover the essence of the early church (supposedly), so why then were these traditions of the early church abandoned soon thereafter?!
I think that it would be nice to see the Church grant an indulgence for women that do cover their heads in church. I mean, you can get an indulgence for devoutly kissing a scapular, so why not devoutly wearing a headcovering as a way of showing humility and submission to God? (actually on second thought, I don’t think that this would be a good idea since men don’t get one for not covering their heads, but it would still be nice to see the Church encourage the practice somehow)
As I mentioned before, these issues do not go over well with the Orthodox. In my opinion and from what I have learned, it seems as though the Catholic Church has more fully preserved the apostolic doctrines and faith of Christ (we basically agree on everything except for papal authority) while the Orthodox are more steadfast on apostolic *traditions and practices *such as these. We get a lot of criticism from them for this. For the sake of ecumenism, I think that it would be a good idea to return to these traditions in hopes of reunion.
I feel that whether or not wearing headcoverings is something that women have to do, it is still something that they *should *be doing.
)