“Certain fashions will be introduced that will offend Our Lord very much.” - Our Lady of Fatima, 1917
Free EBOOK. Recall Our Lady warned the world in 1917! How much worse is the scandal these days with immodest dress especially in Summer
Summer unfortunately brings with it the height of immodesty, in both men and women. This is a good time, then, to remember that words of Our Lady of Fatima who warned us that "more souls go to hell for sins of the flesh (i.e. sins against the 6th and 9th Commandments) than for any other reason." Our Lady of Fatima told Jacinta, "Certain fashions will be introduced that will gravely offend My Son." Jacinta also said, “People who serve God should not follow fashions. The Church has no fashions; Our Lord is always the same.”
Shorts, sleeveless tops, slacks on women, mini-skirts, swimwear, bare midriffs, tight and sheer clothing would all fit into this category of immodest fashions. Sadly, few priests warn their flock of the great danger associated with immodesty of dress, that of losing one’s soul for all eternity. So many girls and young women are growing up today without direction and, like so many misled sheep, are following immoral fashions to the destruction of souls.
The following are various warnings the Catholic Church has given to the faithful, for the protection of their immortal souls.
CHURCH STATEMENTS ON MODESTY OF DRESS
Pope Benedict XV wrote in his encyclical Sacra Propediem on January 6, 1921:
“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 passion to the Holy
Altar, where one receives the Author of Purity.”
“We recall that 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 knee. Furthermore, dresses of transparent
material are improper. Let parents keep their daughters away from public
gymnastic games and contests; but, if their daughters are compelled to attend
such exhibitions, let them see to it that they are fully and modestly dressed.
Let them never permit their daughters to don immodest garb.”
“Now many girls do not see
anything wrong with following certain shameless styles (fashions) like so many
sheep. They would surely blush if they could only guess the impressions they
make and the feelings they evoke (arouse) in those who see them.” (July
17, 1954)
“The good of our soul is
more important than that of our body; and we have to prefer the spiritual
welfare of our neighbor to our bodily comforts… If a certain kind of dress
constitutes a grave and proximate occasion of sin, and endangers the salvation
of your soul and others, it is your duty to give it up… 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 of yourselves,
the harm which you are causing these children, whom Heaven has entrusted to you
to be brought up as Christians.” (Pius XII to Catholic Young Women’s Groups of
Italy)
“Man himself does not escape
from the inclination of exhibiting his flesh: some go in public, stripped to the
waist, or in very tight pants or in very scanty bathing suits. They thus commit
offenses against the virtue of modesty. They may also be an occasion of sin (in
thought or desire) for our neighbor.”
“A special danger to morals
is represented by public bathing at beaches ... Mixed bathing between men and
women, which is nearly always a proximate occasion of sin and a scandal, must be
avoided.”
From a 1930 Letter of the Congregation of the Council:
“By virtue of
the supreme apostolate which he wields over the Universal Church by Divine Will,
our Most Holy Father Pope Pius XI has never ceased to inculcate, both verbally
and by his writings, the words of St. Paul (1 Tim. 2:9-10), namely, ‘Women ...
adorning themselves with modesty and sobriety ... and professing godliness with
good works.’ Very
often, when occasion arose, the same Supreme Pontiff condemned emphatically the
immodest fashion of dress adopted by Catholic women and girls--which fashion not
only offends the dignity of women and against her adornment, but conduces to the
temporal ruin of the women and girls, and, what is still worse, to their eternal
ruin, miserably dragging down others in their fall. It is not surprising,
therefore, that all Bishops and other ordinaries, as is the duty of ministers
of Christ, should in their own dioceses have unanimously opposed their depraved
licentiousness and promiscuity of manners, often bearing with fortitude the
derision and mockery leveled against them for this cause.”
From the Plenary Assembly of the Bishops of Brazil:
“Let the
priests forcefully insist that women wear clothing which expresses modesty ...
“Let women, at all times, but especially, as the Apostle Saint Paul teaches, when they are in church, dress with modesty. If they should dare to enter the church immodestly dressed, let them, as Canon Law commands (Canon 1262, par. 2), be judiciously put out and prevented from assisting at any function whatsoever.
“Let those who are going to receive Holy Communion be decently dressed. Women whose heads are not covered and who are improperly dressed are to be excluded from the Sacrament, as Canon Law directs (Canons 855 & 1262, par. 2).”
St. Padre
Pio, the stigmatist priest, who bore the bleeding wounds of Christ on his own
body from 1918 until his death in 1968, refused to grant absolution to any woman
who did not wear her skirt well below the knee. He also insisted that women do
not wear slacks. (Verified by mail at Padre Pio’s monastery. Address: Rev. J.
P. Martin, San Giovanni Rotondo 71013 FG Italy)“Let women, at all times, but especially, as the Apostle Saint Paul teaches, when they are in church, dress with modesty. If they should dare to enter the church immodestly dressed, let them, as Canon Law commands (Canon 1262, par. 2), be judiciously put out and prevented from assisting at any function whatsoever.
“Let those who are going to receive Holy Communion be decently dressed. Women whose heads are not covered and who are improperly dressed are to be excluded from the Sacrament, as Canon Law directs (Canons 855 & 1262, par. 2).”
A General Pastoral Directive from 1915 reads: “Women must be decently dressed, especially when they go to church. The parish priest may, with due prudence, refuse them entrance to the church and access to the reception of the Sacraments, any and every time that they come to church immodestly dressed.”
St. John Chrysostom, Bishop
of Constantinople and one of the 32 doctors of the Church, said the following
regarding women who dress immodestly:
"You carry your snare
everywhere and spread your net in all places. You allege that you never invited
others to sin. You did not indeed by your words, but you have done so by your
dress and your deportment. And much more effectively than you could by your
voice. When you have made another sin in his heart, how can you be innocent?
Tell me whom does this world condemn? Whom do the judges in court punish?
Those who drink poison or those who prepare it and administer the fatal potion?
You are more criminal than those who poison the body. You have given the
death-dealing drink. You murder not the body but the soul, and it is not to
enemies do you do this nor are you urged on by any imaginary necessity nor
provoked by injury. But you do it out of foolish vanity and pride."
Unfortunately, today's
attire seems to have almost no boundaries. It is a disgrace for Christian women
to expose their bodies, which are the temples of the Holy Ghost after baptism. A
women who dresses immodestly commits a double sin:
“You women who profane your
bodies have been led by satan to soul destruction. You expose your bodies not
knowing the evil that comes into the minds of the beholder. Therefore, your sin
is twofold for you have led another to fall into sin!”
The Bible tells us: “Know
you not that your members are the temple of the Holy Ghost, who is in you, whom
you have from God: and you are not your own? For you are bought with a great
price. Glorify and bear God in your body.” (1 Corinthians 6:19-20) Immodest
dress is an offense to God and does not glorify God, but rather reduces the
Christian woman to an object of lust and mocks the laws of God. Modesty in
dress, on the other hand, helps safeguard the virtue of purity and is demanded
by the moral law of God. St. Cyprian writes:
"Nothing so delights the
faithful soul as the healthy consciousness of an unstained modesty. To have
vanquished pleasure is the greatest pleasure; nor is there any greater victory
than that which is gained over one's desires." Related:
http://tradcatknight.blogspot.com/2016/10/modesty-why-should-i-have-to-dress.html
http://tradcatknight.blogspot.com/2015/09/former-fashion-model-modesty-is-about.html
http://tradcatknight.blogspot.com/2014/04/the-path-to-hell-vanity-indecency.html
http://tradcatknight.blogspot.com/2017/03/modesty-are-you-modest-in-sight-of-god.html
http://tradcatknight.blogspot.com/2015/05/modesty-in-dress-love-of-god.html
Maria Cahill, "Modesty In The Modern World"