I’m sorry to repeat myself, but if a parish is going to set out printed suggestions for a “dress code,” why not use the dress code that is used at the Vatican? Why should we try to be holier than them?
I suppose if we really believed that there in the Tabernacle was the Body, Blood Soul and Divinity of Our Lord, we’d be on our faces and have a totally different view of what we did etc.
Food for thought
michaeljournal.org/stpio.htm
Modesty in dress
Padre Pio requested people to be dressed modestly to enter the Church of St. Mary of All Graces in San Giovanni Rotondo. During the last years of his life, he became even more severe, as fashions became more immodest. He drove away from his confessional, without respite, all the ladies he deemed to be dressed improperly, even before they entered the confessional box. So they had to put up on the door of the church this notice:
“The church is God’s house. It is forbidden for men to enter here with bare arms and wearing shorts. It is forbidden for women to enter wearing trousers, bare headed, with short, low-necked or sleeveless dresses. It is forbidden to borrow dresses in the church to be able to go to confession.”
The last line of the notice was not superfluous. In the church, a few minutes before entering the confessional box, many ladies made a rapid change of clothes — dresses, smocks, rain coats — to make up for what was lacking. As soon as Padre Pio saw them, he muttered: “Go and get dressed, jokers!”
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Also Our Lady of Fatima made statements about improper dress.
I finally found it!
**She said, “Certain fashions will be introduced which will offend My Son very much.” **
Our Lady of Fatima Stressed
**Modesty in Dress **
Mother Teresa, a model of modesty and womanhood shows by her life that ‘a virtuous life is the best adornment for women’ (1 Tim. 2:10). In Rome, on December 4, 1985, she graciously accepted different issues of The Fatima Crusader and was interested to learn from Father Gruner the findings of the International Fatima Rosary Crusade Symposium regarding the urgent need to consecrate Russia to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Her order is dedicated to Our Lady’s Immaculate Heart.
GIVE US GUIDELINES ON MODESTY
In December, 1985, we received a letter from Joseph B. of New York asking us to get the Vatican to supply guidelines on Modesty in Dress. His letter follows:
"Dear Father Gruner,
Code:
"Three times this year I have written to the Vatican to obtain information on the subject MODESTY. Twice I wrote to Cardinal Ratzinger and once (recently) to Pope John Paul II. In these letters I asked for booklets, history, documents, etc. in which MODESTY would be fully explained. I have not received an answer at all.
"I ask you Father Gruner, could you somehow get the Vatican to supply this material to me? Please. You know that at Fatima, MODESTY was very much stressed by the Blessed Virgin Mary. She said that She wanted people to dress modestly.
"All this year I've been asking everyone possible about the subject MODESTY - but no one seems to know or care. There has to be detailed information on MODESTY, since THE MOTHER OF GOD WOULD NOT TELL US TO DRESS MODESTLY IF THERE WERE NO GUIDELINES TO FOLLOW.
"Please reply!
"Sincerely,
Joseph B.,
New York."
Our Response
It is with apprehension that we reply to this request. Today we know that there is much opposition from some laypeople and even from some bishops to teaching the Catholic Doctrine regarding Modesty in Dress. The Vatican has in the past given clear guidelines regarding Modesty in Dress.
Code:
It is perhaps because there has been widespread opposition and disobedience to these guidelines that the Vatican refuses to come out with a new statement.
God allows us to be punished by the silence of the Magisterium today for the sins of not obeying the Magisterium when it spoke up. Just as God, as punishment, did not send more prophets to the people of the Old Testament after the people had killed and rejected many of the prophets He had already sent to them.
If anyone wants the last clear statement of guidelines from the Vatican and Church authorities, they can obtain it from the International Fatima Rosary Crusade offices - ask for the Modesty in Dress leaflet. The essential guidelines that the Vatican gave in this matter is summed up in the one paragraph which we here quote:
"A dress cannot be called decent which is cut deeper than two fingers breadth under the pit of the throat; which does not cover the arms at least to the elbows; and scarcely reaches a bit beyond the knees. Furthermore, dresses of transparent materials are improper."
Following this guideline as well as special guidance from Heaven, Padre Pio the stigmatic priest who bore the bleeding wounds of Christ on his own body from 1918 until his death in 1968 refused time and again to absolve any woman, no matter how important she was, who did not wear her skirts well below the knee. He also insisted that they do not wear slacks. Yet this guideline, due to ignorance, prejudice, enslavement to vanity or passion has been combated so much.
Over six years ago, even two bishops temporarily entered the fight. They felt compelled to persecute The Fatima Crusader in 1979 for publishing this material. One of these bishops, several years later before his death, seemed more disposed to hear the truth.
Thus we hope you will understand why today many priests do not want to talk about this subject. But for Our Lady of Fatima and for the salvation of souls we shall here attempt to explain the matter more fully.
We agree that Joseph B. poses an important question. One that is very important because if it is not properly answered it can lead to the loss of immortal souls. These souls are of infinite worth because Jesus Christ paid for them with the shedding of His Most Precious Blood. Immodesty in Dress, if gravely offensive would be a mortal sin for the wearer and it is an occasion of sin for the beholder of immodest fashions. So that immodest fashions alone send to Hell, or at least make worthy of Hell's fire, the souls of many of those who see these fashions.
Our Lady at Fatima lamented that in our times the Militant Atheists, that is the Communists and their associates in our own country would spread their errors against our Christian Catholic faith and morals. Our Lady said, "Russia will spread her errors throughout the world." She also said, "Certain fashions will be introduced which will offend My Son very much."
The Blessed Virgin Mary also tells us at Fatima that "more souls go to hell for sins of the flesh than any other reason".
