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On the other hand, going with older written standards (perhaps the statements of past popes or spiritual leaders) has the tendency to make us pointlessly strict. Covering elbows and knees for instance. Would that do any real good in promoting purity for anyone? I doubt it. That’s why the reactions of current-day men are important, and we should get a good handle on them. Then we can answer these questions intelligently.
God Bless,
Joan
Dear Joan,
Cordial greetings, dear sister, and thankyou for your excellent post above.
Whist I would concur with and endorse nearly all of your remarks, I must beg to differ with your satement that “older written standards (perhaps the statements of past popes or spiritual leaders) has tendency to make us pointlessly strict”. Surely, this is the very antidote that is required in an age of unprecedented moral laxity such as our own? Indeed, such standards may have a rather sobering effect upon those neo-orthodox Catholics who have adopted hook, line and sinker the immodest fashions and styles of our morally degenerate world. After all, as this current thread evinces beyond any doubt, there has been an almost complete loss of the moral sense among some of the faithful, with the very lamentable result that many, seemingly, no longer even have an instinct for modesty.
My point is that the pendulum has swung too far in the direction of worldly assimilation of our amoral culture and its “anything goes” relativistic mindset - choice of shameful voluptuous vesture being just one of many examples of this. The urgent need of the hour is surely to,
inter alia, counteract this godless trend by some sound and sober standards from the pre-Vatican II Church, which may just facilitate the godly effort of returning the contemporary Church to the path of virtue and a authentic traditional Catholicism. True, that will not suffice
per se, but it is at least a jolly good place to begin.
Unfortunately, owing to very poor catechesis and the influence of ‘Catholicism Lite’, many of our brethren have little or no knowledge at all of the austere and no-nonsense practice of religious faith in the pre-Vatican II period. Consequently, there has been, not surprisingly, a deplorable loss of the
sensus fidelium within the modern Church. Anything which helps bring us to our senses and alert us to our present plight, is surely to be warmly welcomed.
The faithful need think to a great deal more than they do about sanctity and separation from the world and living up to the arduous and unpopular demands of our most holy religion. We are all called to the pursuit of holiness and to be perfect even as our Father in heaven is perfect, so can we really be “pointlessly strict”, Joan, given that the entire course of this life is a state of probation?
God bless and thankyou again for your insightful contribution.
Warmest good wishes,
Portrait
Pax
You’ve been fed a load of bunk. I come from a long line of Catholics—yes–pre–Vat II Catholics. And am old enough to have known them and many more. This “austere” pre-
Vat II Catholicism --did not exists. Pre-VII Catholics went to dances and danced— listened to music— dressed in the fashion of the time—and “gasp” – drank alcoholic beverages. The Pre-Vat II “austere” were the protestants.
What I see happening with the modern day “Traditionalists” --is the merging of protestant “austerity” with Catholicism.
