I live in a warm climate and wear nice shorts to Mass all the time with a nice shirt. I’m not the only one. I have never worn flip flops but have seen ppl in them and it doesn’t bother me in the least. Why should it when we’re all there for the Lord. Jesus and His disciples walked around in sandals and you’re gonna ban all shorts? That’s ludicrous. It’s like saying Jesus would turn away someone in shorts. Sorry but IMHO that’s going to far. If the ban ever goes worldwide, that’s for sure when I walk out the door. But at least for now guess the Pope won’t be seeing me anytime in the summer. Peace.
Well, Matt, it used to be that common sense was a little more common and people’s understanding of things like appropriate dress, speech, and manners was more common as well.
Unfortunately, you have the extremists (on both sides). You have the people who think that God ‘doesn’t care’ about how we present ourselves to Him, and you have the people who think that God has a more rigorous ‘dress code’ than the Pope does. Extremes, agreed?
Also unfortunately, when Joe Normal and Jane Average want to get advice on proper attire, you have the EXTREMISTS arguing.
Extremist “casual” : It is LUDICROUS to even THINK about dress at Mass. You should be focused on God and He doesn’t care. People who talk about dressing up hate the poor and are only concerning with looking ‘better’ than everybody else.’
Extremist “rigorous”: People are slobs and the whole question of appropriate dress today is a scandal and a disgrace. Women should be in DRESSES and men in SUITS, and anything else shows disrespect to God."
Thing is, most of us ‘normal people’ would (at least decades ago, when EVERYBODY understood that certain occasions, such as going to Mass, were a little more ‘special’ than other occasions, such as mowing the lawn, having a picnic, or cleaning the garage) have KNOWN exactly what proper attire for an occasion was. Not the silly ‘casuals’ screaming, “You want people to wear their best, that means TUXES and BALLGOWNS, how silly”, nor yet the “rigorous” insisting, “Women must wear ankle length dresses with no skin showing anywhere and men must wear suit, coat, vest and tie, whether it is 110 in the shade or not”. People knew (because they had learned through tradition and carried it down, and this was considered normal for society, and therefore SOCIETY knew) what “Sunday attire” meant. The dressmakers and haberdashers carried “Sunday dresses” and “Sunday suits”, magazines showed pictures and patterns for “Sunday clothes”, newspapers and even TV and books had descriptions of NORMAL, EVERYDAY people and what they wore to Church, etc… People had very specific ‘wear’ for ‘leisure’, for ‘work’, for ‘dress’, etc. And this meant everybody, even the ‘poor’. Because one cared about everything–not just ‘dress’, but words, and thoughts, and actions. . .one understood that we don’t live in a vacuum, that we have to ‘walk the walk’ as well as ‘talk the talk’. It’s EASY to just SAY "I love God’ (hearts and flowers) but it’s much, much harder to SHOW that one loves God. Too many people ‘say with their lips’ "I love you God’ but that’s all they do. They don’t do actions which show that God is anything more than any other ‘activity’ in their life. They don’t show with their appearance, their words, or their actions that a visit with God on Sunday at Mass is ANY different from going to the store, or cleaning the attic. And one of the effects of their not ‘showing’ the difference is that they don’t feel or understand that there IS a difference!! Of course, this is a very ‘casual’ society in the East and Left (I mean West) Coast U.S.A. where people don’t tend to dress, act, or speak any differently whether they are hard at work in a professional office, attending a landmark function like a graduation, or a family anniversary, or raking leaves --the same kind of casual ‘grubby’ wear is worn to all, and the same kind of casual, slangy, even ‘profane’ speech and gesture has become prevalent.
Luckily there are still areas of the country where people still preserve the ‘old’ traditions or, if they have lapsed, are now trying to revive them. Hopefully in the next few years, Matt, they’ll trickle on down to your area.
I know it varies. Once when just out of curiosity I was looking at other churches I found a PCUSA pastor telling me I would have to wear a suit and tie. That surprised me given PCUSA’s reputation for being more liberal. But then my local LCMS which is of course a more conservative denomination espouses appropriate casual dress. TEC, UCC, UMC and DoC in my area all allow shorts. So far, emphasis on so far, the Catholic parishes I attend still allow shorts. But yeah I remember first weaing jeans in the 70s. You know those dreadful post Vat 2 yrs! 
And I certainly can’t help ya if you are momentarily distracted but then can’t refocus your thoughts on Him and not me while you’re in His presence. God bless and peace!