Our Lady at Fatima to Jacinta : "Certain styles and fashions are being introduced which gravely offend my Divine Son!"
Certain fashions. Not "all fashions that are being introduced gravely offend" Our Lord. Several fashions have been introduced since then. Short hair. Calf length skirts. Why not pick on those fashions? It's just guesswork assuming that Our Lady included trousers.
Ven. Pope Pius XII (Allocution, July 17, 1954) : "How many young girls there are who do not see any wrongdoing in following certain shameless styles like so many sheep. They certainly would blush if they could guess the impression they make and the feeling they evoke in those who see them. Do they not see the harm resulting from excess in certain gymnastic exercises and sports not suitable for virtuous girls? What sins are committed or provoked by conversations which are too free, by immodest shows, by dangerous reading. How lax have consciences become, how pagan morals!"
Yes. Not trousers though!
Pietro Cardinal Ciriaci, Congregation of the Council (Aug 21, 1954): "Everyone knows that during the summer months particularly, things are seen here and there, which are certain to prove offensive to anyone who has retained some respect and regard for Christian modesty. On the beaches, in country resorts, almost everywhere, on the streets of cities and towns, in public and private places, and, indeed, often even in buildings dedicated to God, an unworthy and indecent mode of dress has prevailed.
"Because of this, the young particularly, whose minds are easily bent towards vice, are exposed to the extreme danger of losing their innocence, which is, by far, the most beautiful adornment of mind and body. Feminine adornment, if it can be called adornment, feminine clothing, if that can be called clothing which contains nothing to protect either the body or modesty, are at times of such a nature, that they seem to serve lewdness rather than modesty . . . Well did the ancient poet say of this matter, 'Vice necessarily follows upon public nudity.'"
Again, none of that applies to trousers! How many women wear trousers on the beaches?
Bishop Antonio de Castro Mayer : "Unfortunately, we are living in times that have lost the sense of sin and, as a result, we see around us an eruption of styles of dress which are, in every way, contrary to Christian modesty. Christian people must not allow themselves to be carried along by the spirit of the world but must firmly resist such deviations... Jacinta Marto, one of the little seers of Fatima, although she was only eleven years old at the time, had a wisdom taught her by the Mother of God.
"She merits, therefore, our attention. Here is what she said with regard to styles of dress: "Fashions will arise which will greatly offend God." When we consider the fashions of our day, we are led to conclude that the times foretold by the little seer have arrived. Indeed, the styles of dress of the women and girls of today such as: very tight clothing; dressing like men, including slacks and tights; low necklines; skirts with hemlines or slits which do not cover the leg below the knee – are absolutely contrary to the norms of Christian modesty."
At last trousers get mentioned. But he's just interpreting Our Lady's words and including trousers.
Decree of the Congregation of the Council (Jan 12, 1930): "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."
Trousers?
I don't think any advocates of trousers on this forum are advocating the things that are condemned in these passages! They are not synonymous. So there's no point in quoting them. You're preaching to the converted regarding the fashions specified! We don't need to be told that low cut dresses and short skirts and see through clothes are immodest! We know! And our support for women's trousers need not be taken as proof that we think transparent, low cut, short clothes are acceptable! It's a non sequitur, again.
Rufino Cardinal Santos, Pastoral Letter (Dec 6, 1959): "O Christian mothers, if only you knew the future distress, peril and ill-restrained shame that you prepare for your sons and daughters by imprudently accustoming them to live barely clothed, and permitting them to lose the sense of modesty, you would be ashamed of yourselves, and of the harm done to the little ones entrusted to you by Heaven to be reared in a Christian dignity and culture."
Barely clothed does not equate to trousers!
Ven. Pope Pius XII, Allocution (May 22, 1941): "Numbers of believing and pious women...in accepting to follow certain bold fashions, break down, by their example, the resistance of many other women to such fashions, which may become for them the cause of spiritual ruin. As long as these provocative styles remain identified with women of doubtful virtue, good women do not dare to follow them; but once these styles have been accepted by women of good reputation, decent women soon follow their example, and are carried along by the tide into possible disaster.
Again, this needn't be referring to trousers.
Dom Bernard Marcheaux : "The evil of our day is this: that the line of demarcation between Christian and non-Christian, between Christian and heretic, between Christian and idolater, is gradually fading away. The cancer of Liberalism attacks everyone and we must be careful not to be infected ourselves. Those who still call themselves Catholic live, too often, like those who have renounced this title. Women who go to church dress just the way women who do not go to church dress;
Didn't they always?
they read the same books and magazines as these women; they go to the same – often immoral – shows as these women; they no longer pray or do penance. It is a confusion of license and worldliness. As a result of these customs, the Church is beginning to disappear in the world. Christianity is being lost. Only rarely does one find Catholics to whom the following words of Saint Paul can apply: "...be blameless and sincere children of God, without reproof, in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation; among whom you shine as lights in the world". (Phil.2:15).
And this has nothing to do with trousers.
The early Christians stood out among the pagans like shining torches in the dark, and the example of their courage and their virtue attracted the pagans strongly to the Faith. This is something which we do not see today, except in rare cases. Everything is a mish-mash of unrestraint."
Did they dress differently though?
Pope Benedict XV, Encyclical Letter Sacra Propediem (Jan 6, 1921) : "One can not 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 Eucharistic Table, where one receives the Heavenly Author of Purity."
Nothing to do with trousers. Everything to do with short skirts, low cut tops, and see through clothes.
Ven. Pope Pius XII, Allocution on Fashion (Nov. 8, 1957) : "One cannot minimize the importance of style's influence for good or for evil. The language of clothing, as we have already said, is the more effective when it is more ordinary and is understood by everyone. It might be said that society speaks through the clothing it wears. Through its clothing it reveals its secret aspirations and uses it, at least in part, to build or destroy its future."
Ven. Pope Pius XII, Allocution on Fashion (Nov. 8, 1957) : "There always exists an absolute norm to be preserved, no matter how broad and changeable the relative morals of styles may be."
Every one of these quotations comes from before 1960, and before the "Sexual Revolution".
And only Bishop de Castro Mayer's mentions trousers.
Clare.
