A campaign for purity and modesty in dress. Address by Pope Pius XII to the young women.
A campaign for purity and modesty in dress. Address by Pope Pius XII to the young women of Catholic Action on 22 May 1941, concerning immodest clothing and the way in which Catholics should set an example through their modest dress.
"We experience lively joy, dear daughters, in once again blessing in you the Holy Crusade of purity, undertaken at such an opportune time and so valiantly continued under the powerful protection of the Most Pure Virgin, Mary Immaculate. Nevertheless, such a great danger against purity is evident today everywhere. The Church has denounced it several times, but what helps to aggravate the evil and to extend the reign of impurity is that indulgence with which the most reprehensible moral disorders are now judged. It is the ever more widespread disappearance of public conscience and of the moral sense in modern society.
Regarding immodest clothing, some young women will say that a certain way of dressing is more comfortable and much more hygienic. It may be so, but if it involves a grave and proximate danger for the soul, it will certainly not be hygienic for it, and you have the obligation to abandon it. Concern for one’s own salvation gave birth to the heroism of martyrs such as Saint Agnes and Saint Cecilia, in the midst of the torments and lacerations with which some heartless men punished their virginal bodies. And you, their sisters in the Faith, in the love of Christ and of virtue, will you not draw from the depths of your hearts the courage and the strength necessary to sacrifice a little comfort, a physical advantage if you will, in order to keep the life of your souls vigorous and pure? And if there is no right to endanger anyone’s physical health, will it not be even less lawful to compromise the health or the very life of souls? If, as some claim, a daring fashion produces no bad impression on them, then they excuse themselves by saying: “How can they be held responsible for the impressions that others may receive?” But who assures them that they will not be an incentive to sin for another? You do not know to what extent human frailty reaches, and from what corrupted blood come the wounds caused by the sin of Adam in our human nature: ignorance of the mind, perversity of the will, thirst for pleasure, and an instinctive aversion to the necessary and arduous struggle against sensual passions. Thus man, soft as wax before evil, sees what is better, approves it, and clings to what is worse, by that fatal law of his nature which always, like lead, drags him downward. How rightly it has been said that if some Catholic young women suspected the temptations and falls they cause in other souls by their clothing and their frivolous ways—which in their lightness they regard as the most natural thing in the world—they would be seized with terror at their responsibility before God.
Catholic mothers, if you knew what a future of inner sorrows and dangers, of doubts and barely contained blushes, you are preparing for your children when you thoughtlessly accustom them to appear in public half-dressed, thus making them lose the candid sense of modesty, you would be ashamed of yourselves. You would become aware of the dishonor that falls upon you and of the harm you cause to the children God has entrusted to you to educate in a Christian manner. And what we say to mothers we repeat to so many believing women, even pious ones, who by following this or that strange fashion, tear down with their example the last barriers that still hold back a multitude of their sisters who are far from that fashion, and which, through their fault, may become the origin of great spiritual ruins. As long as certain provocative garments remain the sad monopoly of women of doubtful reputation, and serve as a distinctive sign that identifies them, no one will dare to wear them. But the day when persons known for their modesty bring them out into the open, no one will hesitate to be carried along by the current, which may drag even those souls into the most humiliating falls. Conscious that Catholic women must realize the very grave moral responsibility that falls upon them, you, dear daughters, moved by the lively sentiment of your Faith and by the beauty of virtue, have closed your ranks to form a Holy Crusade and to be the champions of purity. Isolated, you would have scant success in confronting the evil that surrounds you. United, on the contrary, in tight ranks, you will be a legion strong and powerful enough to impose respect for the rights of Catholic modesty. Your sense as young Catholic women, perfected and sustained by the wisdom of the Faith and the enlightened practice of a life of solid piety, will enable you to see and discern in the light of the spirit of God, with the help of His grace obtained through prayer..."
-Pope Pius XII, 22 May 1941.
Regarding immodest clothing, some young women will say that a certain way of dressing is more comfortable and much more hygienic. It may be so, but if it involves a grave and proximate danger for the soul, it will certainly not be hygienic for it, and you have the obligation to abandon it. Concern for one’s own salvation gave birth to the heroism of martyrs such as Saint Agnes and Saint Cecilia, in the midst of the torments and lacerations with which some heartless men punished their virginal bodies. And you, their sisters in the Faith, in the love of Christ and of virtue, will you not draw from the depths of your hearts the courage and the strength necessary to sacrifice a little comfort, a physical advantage if you will, in order to keep the life of your souls vigorous and pure? And if there is no right to endanger anyone’s physical health, will it not be even less lawful to compromise the health or the very life of souls? If, as some claim, a daring fashion produces no bad impression on them, then they excuse themselves by saying: “How can they be held responsible for the impressions that others may receive?” But who assures them that they will not be an incentive to sin for another? You do not know to what extent human frailty reaches, and from what corrupted blood come the wounds caused by the sin of Adam in our human nature: ignorance of the mind, perversity of the will, thirst for pleasure, and an instinctive aversion to the necessary and arduous struggle against sensual passions. Thus man, soft as wax before evil, sees what is better, approves it, and clings to what is worse, by that fatal law of his nature which always, like lead, drags him downward. How rightly it has been said that if some Catholic young women suspected the temptations and falls they cause in other souls by their clothing and their frivolous ways—which in their lightness they regard as the most natural thing in the world—they would be seized with terror at their responsibility before God.
Catholic mothers, if you knew what a future of inner sorrows and dangers, of doubts and barely contained blushes, you are preparing for your children when you thoughtlessly accustom them to appear in public half-dressed, thus making them lose the candid sense of modesty, you would be ashamed of yourselves. You would become aware of the dishonor that falls upon you and of the harm you cause to the children God has entrusted to you to educate in a Christian manner. And what we say to mothers we repeat to so many believing women, even pious ones, who by following this or that strange fashion, tear down with their example the last barriers that still hold back a multitude of their sisters who are far from that fashion, and which, through their fault, may become the origin of great spiritual ruins. As long as certain provocative garments remain the sad monopoly of women of doubtful reputation, and serve as a distinctive sign that identifies them, no one will dare to wear them. But the day when persons known for their modesty bring them out into the open, no one will hesitate to be carried along by the current, which may drag even those souls into the most humiliating falls. Conscious that Catholic women must realize the very grave moral responsibility that falls upon them, you, dear daughters, moved by the lively sentiment of your Faith and by the beauty of virtue, have closed your ranks to form a Holy Crusade and to be the champions of purity. Isolated, you would have scant success in confronting the evil that surrounds you. United, on the contrary, in tight ranks, you will be a legion strong and powerful enough to impose respect for the rights of Catholic modesty. Your sense as young Catholic women, perfected and sustained by the wisdom of the Faith and the enlightened practice of a life of solid piety, will enable you to see and discern in the light of the spirit of God, with the help of His grace obtained through prayer..."
-Pope Pius XII, 22 May 1941.
Comments
Post a Comment