Dear Reverend Fathers,
I’m writing about a grave, ongoing and general problem in the Church. It concerns the horrendous immodesty that is permitted in the churches, (God’s House), in the Masses, adoration chapels, at Holy Communion, and so on.
My question is: Do you really think the clergy are fulfilling their duty in this matter to admonish, instruct, and to warn the women who come to church this way, and even have the audacity to approach the Author of Purity in Holy Communion?
Everywhere I go, what do I hear from the clergy? Silence. The interrogator at St. Thomas More’s trial said: “This silence is bellowing all up and down England…Does not this silence of his construe that he is against the king?” And St. Thomas replies, “Not so! If my silence construes anything, it must be it construed as consent!” The silence of the clergy seems to be bellowing all up and down through heaven. God looks down with an angry look and sees not a man with the backbone to suffer persecution for his Son’s sake. When Blessed Elizabeth Canori Mora saw God’s gaze on the earth 200 years ago, she said it was enough to incinerate the whole world. It also says: ‘’On Christmas Eve 1813, Elizabeth was transported in ecstasy to a place refulgent with light. There she saw countless saints in adoration before a humble manger. The Infant Jesus signaled her sweetly to approach, but on drawing near she saw that He was soaking with His own Blood. “Just the thought of it fills me with horror” she wrote. “But at the same time I understood the reason for such shedding of blood was the bad habits of many priests and religious who do not behave according to their state in life and the bad education given to children by their fathers, mothers and others entrusted with this duty. They, who should increase the spirit of the Lord in the hearts of others by their good example, instead mortally persecute Him with their bad conduct and teachings.” ‘’Woe to you when men bless you…Blessed are you when they persecute you for my name’s sake.’’
How many women are falling into hell , because they come into God’s house, and the clergy do not correct them? How many men on the street are falling into hell because their immodest dress was not corrected by the clergy, and they are incited to lust by this grave immodesty? Do you even know the Norms and Standards for proper dress in public, and in the Lord’s house? Are you aware that in some cases, they are to be refused Holy Communion, such as Fr. Schoenbaechler used to do? And some are even to be debarred from church if necessary. You can read the Norms on this site, saintsworks.net.
The Blessed Mother warned about immodest fashions to come 400 years ago in Quito, Equador, to Mother Marianna, and a 100 years ago to St. Jacinta of Fatima. About 50 years ago she said to Enzo Alocci , ‘’Go tell the clergy to be stricter about allowing women to come to church in indecent dresses, and to send them away, for it is not suitable to come in the presence of the Divine Majesty in such indecency.’’ The General Pastoral Directive of 1915 states that women must be decently dressed when coming to church, and may be refused entrance to the church, and access to the Sacraments each and every time they come immodestly dressed. Did you get that. Let’s read it again: The General Pastoral Directive of 1915 states that women must be decently dressed when coming to church, and may be refused entrance to the church, and access to the Sacraments each and every time they come immodestly dressed.
Fr. Lucian Hayden was one of the saintliest men I ever met. I was in his rectory many years ago and I overheard him talking on the phone to a lady to try to get her back into the Church. He was having some difficulty. Finally I heard him say, ‘’I have to warn you. If I don’t, and you lose your soul, I may go to hell for it.’’ The scripture relates how the rich man Dives went to hell for his neglect to feed Lazarus. Fr. Rhodes pointed out that the scripture shows that he went to hell for a sin of omission, not a sin of commission. But Lazarus wasn’t guilty of sin, the women are, and you clergy fail to correct them. You allow them to continue to walk the road to hell, and even when they have the audacity to come to Holy Communion, you give them sacrilegious Communions even when their sin is manifest. If immodesty isn’t a grave sin, then why did St. Paul say, ‘’The immodest share not inherit the kingdom of God?’ Gal. 5:19, “Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are fornication, uncleanness, immodesty, luxury,…’’ You hand Our Lord over to be crucified again when you give Holy Communion to one in manifest sin. Hebrews 6:6. A much greater sin! ‘’To him that knoweth to do good, and doth it not, it is sin.’’ St. James 4:17. Do you not know that “Judgement shall begin at the house of God?’’ as St. Peter says. ‘’That is, with the clergy,’’ said St. Alphonsus.
St. Leonard’s on THE LITTLE NUMBER OF THOSE WHO ARE SAVED does not speak well of the clergy. He quotes St. Jerome who said, ‘’Although the world is full of priests, barely one in a hundred is living in conformity with his state.’’ He tells the story of the time of St. Bernard’s death, and how, afterwards a holy anchorite who died the same time as St. Bernard, appeared back on earth to a soul and revealed to him, “There were 33,000 who appeared before the judgement seat of God. Bernard and I went straight to heaven, three went to purgatory, and all the rest were damned.’’ ‘’The number of fools is infinite.’’ Eccles. 1:15. How many priests do you think were in that lot? And St. John Chrysostom exclaiming with tears in his eyes: “I do not believe that many priests are saved; I believe the contrary, that the number of those who are damned is greater.’’ St. Alphonsus, In his sermon, ADVICE TO PARENTS, has a terrible quote concerning the negligence of the clergy in instructing the people ( which also Blessed Elizabeth Canori Mora said was one of the reasons God was so angry at the world) Hear St. Alphonsus: ‘’ It was related that, in the year 1248, an ignorant priest was commanded, in a certain synod, to make a discourse. He was greatly agitated by the command and the Devil appearing to him, instructed him to say, “The rectors of infernal darkness salute the rectors of parishes, and thank them for their negligence in instructing the people; because from ignorance proceeds the misconduct and the damnation of many.”
The Blessed Mother’s message to Enzo Alocci is also pertinent to this problem. The Twelve Things That Happen shows how a priest and bishop can accumulate thousands of sins on their souls if they are responsible for others and fail to do so. (1)
We have an example in the Gospel of a man who came to the wedding feast not properly dressed, and Our Lord said to cast him out, where he would wail and gnash his teeth. Who said that? Jesus Christ said it. Immodesty is the sin most displeasing to God in women, and nothing is being done about it. (2)
This is not a pleasant topic, and I hesitated for a long, long time , but I think it is time that someone started speaking out, even if it is a layman. As St. Paul said, “It is time now for us to rise from sleep.’’ The sleeping dog. (3) Or, pay the consequences of our neglect from an angry Judge, a Judge who died for us.
Sincerely in Christ,
Larry Wethington
- 1 This would also apply to preachers in the protestant sects, who take upon themselves the responsibility of preaching to others. You see many immodest women going in their churches as well. “I chastise my body, and bring it into subjection, lest perhaps, when I have preached to others, I myself should become a castaway.’’ 1 Cor. 9:27.
- 2 The sleeping dog at LaSalette. When the sculptors were depicting the scene of the Blessed Mother’s apparition to Melanie and Maximin, Melanie kept insisting on the sleeping dog. “Why all the fuss about the sleeping dog?’’ they asked. ‘’ What’s it got to do with the apparition?” “Oh! It has everything to do with it. The dog represents the clergy. It slept all during the apparition. The clergy slept all during the crisis!’’
- 3 From the book HELL AND HOW TO AVOID HELL, page 81, it relates the story from Father Eusebius Nieremburg, who resided at the College of Madrid, where he died in the odor of sanctity in 1658, relates the story of a noble and exceedingly pious lady, who asked God to make known to her what displeased His Divine Majesty most in persons of her sex. The Lord vouchsafed in a miraculous manner to hear her. He opened under her eyes the eternal abyss. There she saw a woman a prey to cruel torments and in her recognized one of her friends, a short time before deceased. This sight caused her as much astonishment as grief: the person whom she saw damned did not seem to her to have lived badly. Then that unhappy soul said to her: “It is true that I practiced religion, but I was a slave of vanity. Ruled by the passion to please, I was not afraid to adopt indecent fashions to attract attention, and I enkindled the fire of impurity in more than one heart. Ah! If Christian women knew how much immodesty in dress displeases God!” At the same moment, this unhappy soul was pierced by two fiery lances and plunged into a caldron of liquid lead. She said she wasn’t afraid to adopt indecent fashions. http://www.olrl.org/virtues/modesty.shtml
- Men’s Dress Worn By Women – By Giuseppe Cardinal Siri http://www.olrl.org/virtues/pants.shtml ‘‘This letter of Ours is not addressed to the public, but to those responsible for souls, for education, for Catholic associations. Let them do their duty, and let them not be sentries caught asleep at their post while evil crept in.’’
- Padre Pio on Women’s Dress from Prophet of the People, by Dorothy M. Gaudiose, pp. 191-2 http://www.olrl.org/misc/food.shtml
- Women received especially rough treatment from Padre Pio because of current fashions. He had always been a merciless enemy of feminine vanity. “Vanity,” he said, “is the son of pride, and is even more malignant than its mother. Have you ever seen a field of ripe corn? Some ears are tall; others are bent to the ground. Try taking the tallest, the proudest ones, and you will see that they are empty; but it you take the smallest, the humblest ones, they are laden with seeds. From this you can see that vanity is empty.”
- Padre Pio wouldn’t tolerate low-necked dresses or short, tight skirts, and he forbade his spiritual daughters to wear transparent stockings. Each year his severity increased. He stubbornly dismissed them from his confessional, even before they set foot inside, if he judged them to be improperly dressed. On some mornings he drove away one after another, until he ended up hearing very few confessions.
- His brothers observed these drastic purges with a certain uneasiness and decided to fasten a sign on the church door: “By Padre Pio’s explicit wish, women must enter his confessional wearing skirts at least eight inches below the knees. It is forbidden to borrow longer dresses in church and to wear them for the confessional.”
- The last warning was not without effect. There was a furtive exchange of skirts, blouses, and raincoats, that took place at the last moment in the half-lit church to remedy any failings. The women made their adjustments, but perhaps not exactly enough. Padre Pio continued to send some away before giving them a chance to confess. He would glower at them, and grumble, “Go and get dressed.” And sometimes he added, “Clowns!” He spared no one… persons he saw for the first time, or his long-time spiritual daughters. Often the skirts were decidedly many inches below the knees, but not sufficiently long for his moral severity.
As the years began to weigh on Padre Pio, his daily hours in the confessional were limited to four, equally divided between men and women. In addition to being dressed properly, they had to know the Italian language, even though he could somehow understand people speaking another language. But he knew Italian, Latin, and very little French, consistently refusing to hear confessions except in Italian or Latin.
- Sometimes when Padre Pio refused to absolve his penitents and closed the small confessional door in their faces, the people would reproach him asking why he acted this way. “Don’t you know,” he asked, “what pain it costs me to shut the door on anyone? The Lord has forced me to do so. I do not call anyone, nor do I refuse anyone either. There is Someone else Who calls and refuses them. I am His useless tool.”
- Even the men had rules to follow. They were not permitted to enter the church with three-quarter length sleeves. Boys as well as men had to wear long trousers at church, if they didn’t want to be shown out of the church, that is. But women in short skirts were his prime targets. Padre Pio’s citadel was perhaps the only place in the world where the fashions of the 1930s still ruled in the 1960’s. (Do you recall what Our Lady of Fatima said about “certain fashions”?)
‘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 [each] and every time that they come to church immodestly dressed.’
- General Pastoral Directive, 1915 A.D.
Most of them would formerly have blushed for those outfits as for a grave fault against Christian modesty; now it does not suffice for them to exhibit them on the public thoroughfares; they do not fear to cross the threshold of the churches, to assist at the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, and even to bear the seducing food of shameful passions to the Eucharistic Table where one receives the Heavenly Author of purity.
And we speak not of these exotic and barbarous dances recently imported into fashionable circles, one more shocking than the other; one cannot imagine anything more suitable for banishing all the remains of modesty.’
- Pope Benedict XV