THE IMPORTANCE OF MODESTY IN DRESS
by Bill Wyler, 1997
"Thy Kingdom Come, Thy Will be done,
on Earth as It is in Heaven"
We as Catholics are to strive for... Mary-Like Modesty
Our Motto is to...
"Conceal not Reveal"
"A woman shall not be clothed
with mans apparel, neither shall a man use woman's apparel: for he is abominable
before God that doeth these things." (Deuteronomy xxii, 5)
[abominable means "detestable"]
This is the Most Perfect Model for Modesty
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As we can see above, the modesty of Catholic women of the first
13 centuries pretty much imitated Our Lady's dress completely, from head
to toe. The code during this time was "fashion cater to modesty,"
not "modesty cater to fashion." We see a change in this trend
in the 14th century with the introduction of the Renaissance. Now although
the women then did not dress wantonly (see glossary below), their modesty
was not the Perfect Model's. Some of them flaunted their hair, while others
wore a bit of pompous clothing. Still, none of it outlined or uncovered
the sensual areas of the body. Later during the heretical Reformation of
the 16th Century, the women of Protestant nations began to expose more
than decency allowed of the the upper regions of the body. During the 19th
century, contrary to the wide-spread notion that women were modest, women
were practically intimidated by the fashion industry, going through extravagant
measures into twisting and outlining their figure, to keep up with the
latest trend. As a reaction to this being "bottled-up" and confined
by clothing, women in the 20th century catered to the flapper craze. This
new rebellious fashion freed them from the restrictive hour-glass shape
of the "gay 90's" to the opposite extreme by the clothing being
straight, and narrow, making them look boyish. This idea of "breaking
free" from the slavery of 19th century pseudo-modesty made women reveal
rather than conceal a little more each decade, to the point in which we
end up with the scandalous fashions of the modern catholic woman today.
Although Catholic women since the Reformation were not as modest as those
from the first 1300 years of the Church, they still none the less kept
the same standard of decency according to the natural law.
During the Renaissance, men became immodest and indecent as well.
In the 14th century some men wore skin-tight pants, and in opposition the
clergy of that time branded this clothing not only indecent but effeminate.
For a man to fall into the "vice of women" (to entice sensually),
by outlining his body with clothing is very effeminate. During the revolutionary
18th century the royal men displayed so much pomp and effeminacy in attire,
that they could not properly act the fatherly role as head of state. This
effeminacy was probably a factor in their weakness against their usurpation.
After the revolutions men regained their modesty for the most part, but
by then it was too late. The devil knew from history that behind every
man is a woman. If he could get the woman to fall first, he could then
use her to break the man next. For every Adam there was an Eve, for every
David there is a Bathsheba, and for every Henry VIII there is an Anne Boleyn.
The standard of decency for women throughout the centuries, was
always to cover the legs and not outline nor display them at all. This
changed with the 20th century's "new tradition" of decency for
Catholic women. Although this new decency was proposed by neither the Church
(anyway, she cannot do such a thing as to redefine the natural law) nor
by Catholic custom, many Catholics none the less decided that since the
heretics were showing a new decency, they could do the same. If enough
people do it, then it's right, was these Catholic's motto, as if the norm
dictated right and wrong, and not the natural law anymore. Saint Augustine
once said, "wrong is wrong whether everyone is doing it and right
is right whether no one is doing it." We as Catholics should know
we do not base our morality on the status quo, but on God and the natural
law (neither of which change.)
The wealthy tend to cater to a new trend
before the poor do; rich and famous women (including the activists) made
the "new decency" fashionable in the first place. The middle
and poor class Catholic women wanting to be fashionable (envy and avarice
play a part here) ended up following suit.
Who did start the "Fad" of Catholic Women wearing Pants instead of Modest Skirts? Was it a Traditional Catholic Woman who was striving to be a Saint? Let's see what history tells us...
"A pair of baggy trousers gathered at the ankles and worn with a short belted tunic was sported by Amelia Jenks Bloomer of Homer, New York, in 1851. She had copied the pants costume from a friend, Elizabeth Smith Miller. But it was Mrs. Bloomer, an early FEMINIST and staunch supporter of reformer Susan B. Anthony, who became so strongly associated with the MASCULINE-TYPE outfit that it acquired her name. Pants, then MEN'S wear, appealed to Amelia Bloomer...Amelia Bloomer REFUSED to wear the popular fashion. Starting in 1851, she began to appear in public in baggy pants and a short tunic. And as more women joined the campaign for the right to vote, Mrs. Bloomer turned the trousers into a UNIFORM OF REBELLION...CHALLENGING the long TRADITION of who in the family wore the PANTS." --article on the origin of bloomers/women wearing pants, taken from "Panati's Extraordinary Origins of Everyday Things" by Charles Panati
So what can we gather from all this? That a feminist miscreant desired
to wear the other sex's clothes to express a demand for "women's rights"
and to spark a rebellion against the traditional mores in decency. Feminists
challenged the tradition of the man being the head of the family by wearing
his clothes. Later on in the 1930's, the Communists would finalize this
revolution in women's clothing. Using gnostic "theology", the
communists deemed women nothing more than imperfect men, who in order to
be as perfect as men, had to express masculinity and repress their feminine
attributes. They made it the ideal fashion, in their propaganda, that women,
in order to express true equality with men in all things,
would also have to wear the masculine clothing for men only, called Pants.
So we can see that this custom of women wearing pants is nothing more than
a feminist tradition. It certainly does not come from the
long held decency code passed down from Catholic woman to Catholic woman
throughout the 19 centuries of the Church's influence on society.
There is a reason that the the custom of women wearing pants DIDN'T
start with Catholic women in a Catholic Society. It was deemed unnatural
and indecent since the time of Christ until this decadent century. The
custom would be deemed unnatural because Catholic women in history thought
(and were right) that pants are for men, and dresses are for women. There
was no question about it. It is indecent because women's bodies are more
sensual, so women wore dresses to cover up more. According to physiology,
women are centrifugal (fleeing away from the center) in their perspective,
seeing things from within themselves, outwardly. Men on the other hand
are centripetal (seeking from the center) in their perspective, seeing
things from without themselves, inwardly. In other words women tend to
be the show'er and men tend to be the looker. This is the reason that women's
bodies are more sensual than a man's. Their bodies are made to be appealing,
so that they can attract a mate (who is designed to look from afar). That
is why there is more of an area on women that is semi-private than there
is on men. Women are by nature designed to be more sensual due to the centripetal-
centrifugal relationship. Knowing this, it is understandable that exhibitionists
tend to be women and voyeurs are usually men.
That's just the way things are. We can't change what is sensual on a person
and what isn't. If it was deemed indecent for women to expose or outline
above the knee in the first 19 centuries of the Church, it is still indecent
for women to expose or outline above the knee in the 20th. A man's sensual
area is in the hip region, so the legs would not have to be completely
covered up and pants would be suitable. The sensual area of a women's body,
being from above the knee, to the elbow, and up to the neck, requires clothing
that could effectively cover this large region. Its always been this way
and you cant change what is sensual unless you dare change human nature,
which as Catholics we know we can't change the natural law. That is the
reason why dresses were for women and pants were for men in the first place.
Another reason that women never wore
pants and only modest skirts is in respect to their femininity. According
to physiology, the female form exhibits rounder and less extreme contours
and more obtuse angles. A male body form is more sharp edged, angular,
rugged and broken. This can be seen not only in the skeleton, and musculature,
but also in each sex's face and movements. A man's face has sharp features,
a woman's more soft and round in appearance. A man's motion is more thought
out and jagged with "countless endings", while a woman's movements
are "endlessly continuous". Clothing is supposed to reflect these
masculine and feminine traits. A man is to wear masculine clothing, and
a woman is to only wear feminine clothing. So that a man's garb should
express his masculinity by tending to be straight and narrow, while a woman's
attire should be round, soft, graceful and flowing. So it comes as no surprise
that Catholic women throughout history only wore full length dresses, not
only to be modest, but also because that clothing (being soft, wide, and
flowing) is in accordance to their feminine nature. Men dressed accordingly
to their nature as well. Pants being sharp and narrow, are harmonious with
masculinity. Pants are anything but graceful. Unisex clothing is for unisex
people. It would be abhorrent if a man were to wear the clothing of a woman,
so why is it not abhorrent if women wear masculine clothing such as pants?
The Church has defined what is indecent or not on women, when it said this,
about covering up, at the very least, the sensual areas...
"A dress cannot be called decent which is cut deeper than two fingers
breadth below the base of the throat, which does not cover the arms at
least to the elbow, and which scarcely reaches a bit below the knees. Dresses
of transparent materials are also indecent."
-The Sacred Congregation of Religious,
under Pius XI, January 12, 1930
"One cannot sufficiently deplore the blindness of so many women
of every age and station. Made foolish by a desire to please, they do not
see to what degree the indecency of their clothing shocks every honest
man and offends God. Most of them would formerly have blushed for such
apparel as for a grave fault against Christian modesty. Now it does not
suffice to exhibit themselves on public thoroughfares; they do not fear
to cross the threshold of churches, to assist at the Holy Sacrifice of
the Mass, and even to bear the seducing food of shameful passions to the
Holy Altar, where one receives the Heavenly Author of Purity."
- Pope Benedict XV
"As long as certain audacious modes of dress remain the
sad privilege of women of dubious reputation and almost a sign by which
they may be known, no-one else would dare to wear that same dress upon
herself: but the moment that it appears upon persons beyond all reproach,
she will hesitate no longer to follow the current, a current which will
drag her perhaps to the worst fall."
-Pope Pius XII, May 22, 1941
"O Christian mothers, if you knew what a future of anxieties
and perils, of ill-guarded shame you prepare for your sons and daughters,
imprudently getting them accustomed to live scantily dressed and making
them lose the sense of modesty, you would be ashamed of yourselves and
you would dread the harm you are making for yourselves, the harm which
you are causing these children, whom Heaven has entrusted to you to be
brought up as Christians." - Pope Pius
XII
"Certain fashions will be introduced
which will offend Our Divine Lord very much. Those who serve God ought
not to follow these fashions. Our Lord is always the same." -Our
Lady of Fatima, warning the people of the 1920s of the fashions that were
to come for Catholic women. It wasn't a warning of the fashions that were
to come for protestants and pagans since they were already indulging in
indecent fashions. It was a warning to the Children of God, who are going
to imitate them.
So Catholic women have to ask themselves who are they using as their Perfect
Model for modesty, the Blessed Virgin Mary or the feminist infidel Amelia
Bloomer?
The reason for covering the body in the first place is to "unshape"
it. If people think wearing skin-tight clothing serves the purpose of covering,
they are dead wrong. Skin-tight does nothing but uncover the shape of the
body. It is as if one were to wear nothing at all.
The first step of the feminist influence in the Church was Catholic
women wearing pants. It would follow next that there would soon be female
lectors, nun's wearing pants, altar girls, female "Doctors" of
the Church, and maybe Priestesses with a Popess!
Rebellion has to start somewhere, and if you don't nip it in the
bud, it will continue to grow.
Before Adam fell, Eve sinned first, and it was through her that
the father of mankind gave us original sin. Vatican II's evil, done by
men, would never have happened so soon or at all, if the backbone (women)
of the Church had not first fallen. Imitating Eve in falling first, Catholic
women of the years preceding this Council already were becoming lax in
their modesty. Without the strength of modest women, men would fall into
lechery and begin to become blind to what the Faith is, and isn't.
Here is a quote that I came across while
reading G. K. Chesterton's famous book, "What's Wrong with the World"...
"...And since we are talking here chiefly in types and symbols, perhaps as good an embodiment as any of the idea may be found in the mere fact of a woman wearing a skirt. It is highly typical of the rabid plagiarism which now passes everywhere for emancipation, that a little while ago it was common for an "advanced" woman to claim the right to wear trousers; a right about as GROTESQUE as the right to wear a false nose...It is quite certain that the skirt means female dignity..." -pgs. 110-111
I would like to conclude with a quote of a Catholic prophecy sent in by one of our concerned readers...
PROPHECY OF ST. NILUS
Realizing that St. Nilus is scarcely known to a large part of
the Church, a brief sketch of his life, taken from the Catholic Encyclopedia
(1911 copyright edition), is related below:
"St. Nilus was one of the many disciples and fervent defenders
of St. John Chrysostom. He was an officer at the Court of Constantinople,
married, with two sons. While St. John Chrysostom was patriarch, before
his exile (398-403), he directed Nilus in the study of Scripture and in
works of piety. St. Nilus left his wife and one son and took the other,
Theodulos, with him to Mt. Sinai to be a monk. The Bishop of Eleusa ordained
both St. Nilus and his son to the priesthood. The mother and other son
also embraced the religious life in Egypt. From his monastery at Sinai,
St. Nilus was a well-known person throughout the Eastern Church; by his
writings and correspondence he played an important part in the history
of his time. He was known as a theologian, Biblical scholar and ascetic
writer, so people of all kinds, from the emperor down wrote to consult
him. His numerous works, including a multitude of letters, consist of denunciations
of heresy, paganism, abuses of discipline and crimes, of rules and principles
of asceticism, especially maxims about the religious life. He warns and
threatens people in high places, abbots and bishops, governors and princes,
even the emperor himself, without fear. He kept up a correspondence with
Gaina, a leader of the Goths, endeavoring to convert him from Arianism.
He denounced vigorously the persecution of St. John Chrysostom both to
the Emperor Arcadius and to his courtiers. St. Nilus must be counted as
one of the leading ascetic writers of the fifth century. His feast is kept
on November 12th in the Byzantine Calendar; he is commemorated also in
the Roman Martyrology on the same date. St. Nilus probably died around
the year 430 as there is no evidence of his life after that."
Now the prophecy:
"After the year 1900, toward the middle of the 20th century, the people of that time will become unrecognizable. When the time for the Advent of the Antichrist approaches, people's minds will grow cloudy from carnal passions, and dishonor and lawlessness will grow stronger. Then the world will become unrecognizable. People's appearances will change, and it will be impossible to distinguish men from women due to their shamelessness in dress and style of hair. These people will be cruel and will be like wild animals because of the temptations of the Antichrist. There will be no respect for parents and elders, love will disappear, and Christian pastors, bishops, and priests will become vain men, completely failing to distinguish the right-hand way from the left. At that time the morals and traditions of Christians and of the Church will change. People will abandon modesty, and dissipation will reign. Falsehood and greed will attain great proportions, and woe to those who pile up treasures. Lust, adultery, homosexuality, secret deeds and murder will rule in society. At that future time, due to the power of such great crimes and licentiousness, people will be deprived of the grace of the Holy Spirit, which they received in Holy Baptism and equally of remorse. The Churches of God will be deprived of God-fearing and pious pastors, and woe to the Christians remaining in the world at that time; they will completely lose their faith because they will lack the opportunity of seeing the light of knowledge from anyone at all. Then they will separate themselves out of the world in holy refuges in search of lightening their spiritual sufferings, but everywhere they will meet obstacles and constraints. And all this will result from the fact that the Antichrist wants to be Lord over everything and become the ruler of the whole universe, and he will produce miracles and fantastic signs. He will also give depraved wisdom to an unhappy man so that he will discover a way by which one man can carry on a conversation with another from one end of the earth to the other. At that time men will also fly through the air like birds and descend to the bottom of the sea like fish. And when they have achieved all this, these unhappy people will spend their lives in comfort without knowing, poor souls, that it is deceit of the Antichrist. And, the impious one! -- he will so complete science with vanity that it will go off the right path and lead people to lose faith in the existence of God in three hypostases. Then the All-good God will see the downfall of the human race and will shorten the days for the sake of those few who are being saved, because the enemy wants to lead even the chosen into temptation, if that is possible... then the sword of chastisement will suddenly appear and kill the perverter and his servants."
In essence the prophecy has basically said that Catholics (those who
are orthodox in the faith) would change the traditions and morals
of the Church and specifically points out that one of these is *modesty*.
It even remarkably states that with these new fashions you could not see
the difference between the masculine and feminine clothing as to blur what
sex the person was. Also that if you tried to correct these people that
they would feel no shame in what they were doing, and classify it as the
norm or at least trivial. If you tried to ask advice from the Catholic
Pastor, although good with knowing dogma, they would fail to distinguish
the "right-hand way from the left" in morality. These are wicked
times and we need to, "Therefore, brethren, stand fast; and hold the
traditions which you have learned, whether by word, or by our epistle,"
(2 Thess. ii, 14), if we are ever going to be saved, despite the reluctance
our Pastors have to condemn these modern fashions right up from the beginning
of this century. In their giving us the "greenlight" in these
matters, "easing" our conscience, they are doing more harm than
the apparent good. People forget that although the Saints might have differed
on different points of dogmatic doctrine (prior to the Church explicitly
ending the differences with a magisterial decree), they all agreed as to
what was modest in attire. There was not a single Canonized Saint or Church
Father who deviated from the decency code in over 1800 years. We as Catholics
are not allowed to differ from their perspectives. We are to condemn and
to condone what they condemned and condoned. It is when we deviate from
THEIR NORM, that we can say we are no longer of their One, Holy, Catholic,
Apostolic Faith. For in order to be Catholic we must be of the same religious
body, and in order to be of the same body, we must profess the same religion
of Christ in Faith *and* morals. We must use the traditions and habits
of the Saints, that they all had in common, throughout the centuries of
the Church. If we fail in achieving this common denominator, we can expect
to fail in achieving our Supernatural End as well.
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