A PAPAL DECREE CONCERNING MODESTY

 

HIS HOLINESS POPE PIUS XI,  12 January 1930

     By virtue of his supreme apostolate, whereby the universal Church is

founded, by divine institution, Our Most Holy Lordship, Pope Pius XI never tires of reiterating the words of St. Paul, to wit: “…women also in decent apparel: adorning themselves with modesty and sobriety, … but as it becometh women professing godliness, with good works…” (I Tim II: 9-10) Frequently, when the occasion has presented itself, the selfsame Holy Pontiff has reproved and bitterly condemned immodesty of dress pervasively introduced into use these days amongst Catholic women and girls, a thing which not only gravely offends feminine beauty and ornament, but leads most lamentably to the temporal and worse still the eternal ruin of these same women and unto the ruin of others still.

      It is no wonder then, that the bishops and other ordinaries, as befits the ministers of Christ, and each in his respective diocese, have opposed, by all means and with unanimous voice, such misguided license and brazen impudence, and tolerating the while with calm fortitude, on account of this, frequent derision and abuse, brought against them by souls of ill will. So let this sacred consilium of the clergy and of the people, pursue the same sort of vigilance and action regarding the propagation of discipline as the holy bishops, with deserved approbation and praise and let it earnestly exhort these same men that they implement the counsels and the undertakings begun in due season, and urge them on generously and to the best of their ability, until this pestiferous sickness be completely rooted out from amongst the honest affairs of men.

     That this aim might be brought the more easily and securely to effect, this sacred congregation, by the mandate of Our Most Holy Lord, decrees what follows to be enacted:

1. May parish priests especially, and preachers when the occasion

presents itself, and according to the words of St. Paul “…demand, reprove, beseech and rebuke…” women to wear clothes that redolent of modesty and such other things as are the ornament and vanguard of virtue, and may they warn parents not to permit their children to wear unseemly dress.

2. Parents, being ever mindful of the most awesome obligation which

binds them of caring firstly and foremostly for the moral and religious

education of their children, are to apply particular diligence, that their

daughters be firmly grounded in Christian doctrine and that those same

daughters also zealously foster in their souls, by words and example, the love of virtues of modesty and chastity; may parents also, in imitation of the Holy Family, busy themselves about so ordering and governing their family, that each and every individual within the family home has a cause and incentive to love and guard modesty.

3. Let those same parents prohibit their children from public athletic

events and gymnastics competitions, or at least, if their daughters must be involved in them, that they take care to exhibit clothing which is fully in keeping with modesty and that their parents never permit them to wear immodest clothing.

4. May the governesses of colleges and instructresses of schools strive so to imbue the souls of young women with the love of modesty that these same young women are led efficaciously to modesty of dress.

5. May those same governesses and instructresses, with no exception even to their own mothers, forbid admission to colleges and schools, to such women as wear unseemly clothing, and once admitted, if they fail to come to their senses, that they dismiss them.

6. Let not religious, according to the letters given by the Sacred

Congregation concerning Religious on August 13, 1928, admit young women into their colleges, schools, oratories, or gymnasia, who do not observe a Christian manner of dress, or if they have already been admitted, that they not tolerate those who do not observe a Christian manner of dress. May they moreover take special pains in the education of their female students, so that the love of Christian modesty and holy reserve take deep root in their hearts.

7. May pious associations of women be established and fostered, organizations which, by their counsel, example and deed, set before themselves the goal of checking the abuse of dress, which is not consistent with the dictates of Christian modesty, as well as the goal of promoting purity of morals and modesty of dress.

8. Into the pious associations of women, let not those women be admitted who put on immodest clothing; and once admitted, if afterwards they commit a sin in this regard, and come not to their senses when admonished, may be expelled as well.

(Reverend Fathers, note well this next order applies to you. If you allow this sin in God’s own House, the sin of the women is imputed to you, and you put your soul in danger of hellfire. Like the damned priest St. Leonard refers to in his book COUNSELS TO PRIESTS, who would absolve an adulterer when he would confess his sin, but would not make him give it up. His wife, a good Catholic woman, warned the husband but he told her to shut up, the priest knew what he was doing. Later the man and the priest both died, and one day in prayer, the woman was shown a vision of her husband and the priest both in hell. She asked her husband, “Who is that carrying you?” and he replied, “It is the priest. He has to carry me and many others for all eternity because he didn’t correct our sin.”

9. Women and girls who wear immodest clothes are to be prohibited from Holy Communion and from the office of sponsor in the sacraments of Baptism and Confirmation, and in certain cases, they are to be prohibited even from entry into the church. (Note: No Communion, and in certain cases, are to be debarred from entering the church).

10. When feasts occur throughout the year, which supply a particular opportunity to inculcate Christian modesty, and especially feasts of the Blessed Virgin Mary, may parish priests and priests of pious associations and heads of Catholic societies not fail, by means of a sermon for that occasion, to recall and encourage women, to a Christian manner of dress. Every year, on the Feast of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary, let special prayers in all the cathedrals and parish churches be made, and, where possible, may timely exhortation be given to the people in the church.

11. May diocesan counsels, discussed in a declaration of the Holy Office of March 22, 1918, in a spirit of vigilance, and at least once a year, openly deal with finding ever more suitable means and methods of effectively giving counsel on feminine modesty. (Suggestions on suitable means. First of all, teach modesty and proper dress in the sermons. Silence implies consent. Secondly, post notices on doorways and inside church the requirements of proper dress, along with head coverings, and demand these regulations be followed. Thirdly, leave out brochures and other means of literature teaching and warning of the sin of immodesty. There is one card titled: SIN MOST DISPLEASING TO GOD IN WOMEN relating the story of the woman damned to hell. Fourthly, post notices in the bulletin on a weekly basis).

12. To which point may salutary action, effectively and safely lead. May bishops and other local ordinaries keep this sacred congregation informed, every third year, together with a report on religious institution given of our own accord in letters in the Catholic World on June 29, 1923, even concerning the condition of things and the state surrounding feminine manner of dress, and concerning works carried out in accordance with the rule of this instruction.

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(The above contains the full text of the papal decree concerning modesty. When you look this up across the internet you will almost inevitably find a page following entitled "The Marylike Standards for Modesty" without any distinction made that these "standards" were not part of the original document and were not issued alongside of it. They come from a letter by Cardinal Basili Pompili written to a community of Italian women religious, and have been extracted and confused with the papal decree above, and touted as instructions issued by the Holy See regulating proper dress for women. 

 

You can read the letter from Cardinal Pompili in the original italian - written September 24th, 1928 -  here: https://archive.org/details/circolare-alle-superiore-degli-istituti-religiosi-femminili/page/n1/mode/2up

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For a video analysis of the confusion surrounding women's modesty guidelines in the Catholic Church, you can watch here: https://www.youtube.com/live/fUteMUB_nkA?si=rpzHZTZ4Tjrm5JM7 )