I think it is a great thing for father’s to screen his daughter’s wardrobe’s, all he would be doing is making sure there is nothing that show’s reveal’s too much, he wouldn’t be acting as the fashion police
. I have seen too many young women go out with miniskirt’s, short short’s etc and the mother remarking how nice she look’s while the father is in horror lol, it is because he see’s thing’s as a man does and understand’s it as such, the worst thing for him to do is to remain passive like so many do. Remember the father is to be the spiritual head of the family, too many forget and reject this and then they complain when men aren’t masculine enough in their Catholicism and stray away
Dear Paddy1989,
Cordial greetings and a very good day. Jolly good post that, if I may say.
A moral obligation is laid upon Catholic parents to ensure that their daughters are not attired in seductive style fashions, which will result in them being viewed as an assemblege of body parts. It is a dereliction of parental responsbility to be indifferrent as to what our daughters are wearing in public and it is inexcusable to buy them immodest garments, such as mini-skirts or dresses with low neckline’s. You are quite right, dear friend, the father is the head and spiritual leader of the family and has a duty to assert his authority in such mattters, albeit not in an imperious manner.
Alas, dear friend, we hear so much nowadays, even within supposedly conservative Catholic circles, about chaps being responsible for their own unchaste thoughts. Indeed, it is sometimes unkindly remarked that if they are unable to subdue impure thoughts, then they are in need of some professional help. Such comments only reveal that those who utter them have not seriously reckoned with man’s fallen nature and his propensity to sin, owing to concupiscence. Of course a man is responsible for the custody of his eyes and no orthodox Catholic would stop to deny this (cf. Job 31: 1), but, equally, a woman also has a duty to don modest attire that does transgress the boundaries of propriety. It is both un-Catholic and un-balanced to contend, as some are wont to do, that the onus is entirely upon men to bridle their unchaste thoughts. Women cannot, and should not, be exonerated from the duty of being clad in decent aparrel (I Tim. 2: 9), which has always been the consistent teaching of Holy Mother Church down through the ages. Here is how a pre-Vatican II manual of instructions in the Catholic faith puts it:
"The virtue of modesty is the virtue which protects chastity by inclining us to guard our senses,
so as not to invite temptation, and to be considerate in our dress and behaviour, so as not to cause temptation in others".
(
Christ in Us, Killgallon and Weber, Sheed & Ward, 1959, p. 269, added emphasis mine).
Listening to some modern Catholics, one could be forgiven for thinking that women were no longer responsible for their choice of clothing and that it was perfectly permissible for them to be clad in provocative attire that invites and is the occasion of temptation in others.
The problem surely today, dear friend, is that most women live and move in a decadent culture that no longer inculcates to them the concept of personal sensitivity. The sexualisation of our Western culture encourages them, even from a tender age, to dress in a provocative manner. Thus it takes a very pious woman indeed to swim against the stream and dare to dress differently from her contemporaries. This is why Catholic parents must not be lax in teaching their daughters (and sons) the importance of being clad in modest attire, so that they will be well trained early and be better able to resist the allure of godless clothing fashions. The times in which our lot is cast demand strict discipline and as long as our children and youth remain under our roof they must obey their parents.
God bless.
Warmest good wishes,
Portrait
Pax
