The Office: Dwight gave Phyllis a massage tonite...

Because she threw her back out in Michael's disco. I'm tellin' ya - one of the writers must have worked for me at one time or another.

I don't know, what do you think Adolph?

Homofascism?

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I mentioned the SA in another post last week, but some people found it disturbing. Today I found more disturbing news...

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"With the rise of an increasingly militant and even violent homosexual movement which has threatened and assaulted Christians for their opposition to their political agenda, homosexual activists in the U.S. and Europe have been increasingly accused of "homofascism."

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Now, a self-described "gay left-wing" journalist in Britain has admitted that the fascist tendency of homosexuals is far more than a conservative rhetorical trope.

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"It's time to admit something. Fascism isn't something that happens out there, a nasty habit acquired by the straight boys. It is - in part, at least - a gay thing, and it's time for non-fascist gay people to wake up and face the marching music."

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According to Hari, the homosexual tendency in Nazism is strongly reflected among fascistic Europeans today. He observes that "Dutch fascist" Pim Fortuyn was an open homosexual who spoke publicly about his sexual behavior. Jorg Haider of Austria's neo-fascist Freedom Party died while leaving a gay bar, after much media speculation about his rumored homosexual relationships. Michael Kuhnen, leader of Germany's neo-fascist movement in the 1980s, died in the early 90s of AIDS after publicly acknowledging his homosexuality. The list goes on and on, Hari says.

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Hari quotes the homosexual pornographic film-maker Bruce LaBruce, who states openly that "all gay porn today is implicitly fascist. Fascism is in our bones, because it's all about glorifying white male supremacy and fetishizing domination, cruelty, power and monstrous authority figures." - Source

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Call me vicious, but I just found this to be interesting, coming as it does from a gay journalist.

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Photo: An example of Mussolini's fascist art. “Physical culture,” as the Fascists like to call it, was an important aspect of the regime’s ideology. - Source

I crack myself up.

I was on another blog where one of the contributors offered a hypothetical scenario involving a terrorist threatening to nuke NYC. The detonation would take place when the heartbeat of an unborn infant reached a certain number - like the 200000th heartbeat or something like that. I loved all the comments - serious ethical and moral considerations were offered as to what could be done: Abort the baby or let millions die? Anyway, my suggestion was to simply evacuate the city.

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I laughed myself to sleep.

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Photo: Atomic cake.

On complacent and apathetic Catholics.

Another bishop speaks.

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Archbishop Chaput is one of our country's 'great' bishops who understands well what is happening in our culture.

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"Archbishop Chaput said that the public witness of many American Christians is “softening,” with some groups working “very vigorously” to secularize or de-Christianize public life and popular culture.

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American Catholics have successfully fit themselves into American culture, so that “too many of us are happy with our complacency, vanity, compromises, comfort and bad formation.”

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“What’s new about our current moment is that too many Christians have made peace with that sinfulness, baptized it with the language of personal conscience, and stopped trying to convert anybody -- including themselves.”

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While a “post-Christian” society may seem similar to the world St. Paul confronted, it is in fact “much worse” because the old pagan world was ignorant of Christ, but today’s paganism involves “a specific choice against Jesus Christ.” - Source

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It seems to me "a specific choice against Jesus Christ" can be defined as apostasy.

On the lack of vocations to the contemplative life.

Fr. Blake had a very good post on the subject.

Let me explain something to you...

I have heard that some people have been "disturbed" by a couple of my posts.

Here you go: Infanticide.

"It's a dirty game"

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People who throw babies out of car windows, into dumpsters, or drown them, might get a break someday if laws such as these are passed:

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A Texas pro-abortion Democrat, Rep. Jessica Ferrar introduced the "Infanticide Bill" this week.

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It defines infanticide as:

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A person commits an offense if the person wilfully by an act or omission causes the death of a child to whom the person gave birth within the 12-month period preceding the child’s death.

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The bill says that infanticide should not be prosecuted as murder as long as:

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… at the time of the act or omission, the person’s judgment was impaired as a result of the effects of giving birth or the effects of lactation following the birth.Infanticide would become a felony, punishable by no more than two years in prison, with a minimum of 180 days, and/or a fine of no more than $10,000. - Source

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Oh, so dads could still be charged with murder if they kill the baby. How civilized.

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H/T Cathlete News

Hayle, ah fells ahz juz wunz bein' dere nom-eye-name-ed!

The Cannonball Awards are going on. Vote at your own risk. (And vote every day.)

What we think we know.

Theologians tell us the devil cannot know our secret thoughts - only God can know these. But the devil can figure things out about us, and suits his temptations perfectly to our weaknesses.

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Similarly, other people cannot know our innermost secrets, although they can figure things out through natural knowledge and by deduction. For instance, I have no special occult knowledge, but it seems to me I know, just from observing behavior, when something a person does or says might be a little disingenuous. I can often tell if they have this tendency or that tendency, and on occasion, I can tell when the life they claim to be living may not be as authentic as they pretend it to be. Call it intuition or being a good judge of character, I'm convinced it is a completely natural ability many people have. I may be completely deluded too.

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Observing behavior is kind of how the devil figures things out about us as well; he is able to surmise from our behaviors, our speech, our attitudes, our weaknesses, what is deeply hidden. The temptations he assaults us with can reveal a great deal about us, both to ourselves and to the devil - especially if we fall. When we fall, the devil then knows for sure, and the cycle of temptation repeats, accelerating in severity. The devil has been doing this ever since the Fall, so he has lots of experience, which is how he deceives people so easily and frequently. But don't be misled, the devil's knowledge is greater than human knowledge, and since he is an angel, he possesses supernatural knowledge.

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Now for us, self-knowledge can be an important safeguard against the devil's wiles. Naturally, despite the fact we can figure things out about others, we are often unable to figure out ourselves. Even so, life experience, rising and falling through our weaknesses, indeed, all of our shortcomings usually result in a greater self-knowledge; although it is easier to enter that chamber through prayer and (the sacrament of) penance. Enduring temptations manfully is a penance. For the just man, as well as the sinner, temptations reveal what he is. That said, self-knowledge also informs and guards against inappropriate or dangerous associates and the occasion of sin.

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Anyway - because we have intelligence, we can sometimes figure stuff out naturally, or even 'know' something is likely to happen - although it doesn't always mean we are right. The benefit of being mistaken serves to prove we can never know another person's motives, responsibility, or culpability - God alone knows that. The lesson learned ought to be, in part, that we should never trust in our so-called "knowledge" be it of others or our self. We must trust in God alone, and abandon ourselves to His loving providence. The other lesson is that we would be better off minding our own business as well.

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However, I read a now very public story on Catholic News Agency about a well known priest who evidently had a fall from grace. I wasn't surprised... it was just a matter of time. I pray for him and for all of our priests. There is nothing else to say.

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"He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High

and abides in the shade of the Almighty

says to the Lord, 'my refuge,

my stronghold in whom I trust!'

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It is he who will free you from the snare

of the fowler who seeks to destroy you;

he will conceal you with his pinions

and under his wings you will find refuge." - Ps. 90

Wow!

Sometimes I can't believe the stuff we get ourselves all upset about after I read stories like this. A man in Florida beat his girlfriend and her 3 month old baby, and then took the baby, drove to the freeway and threw the baby out of his car window, over a bridge down on the pavement below.
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When an officer asked how he could throw a baby out the window, the man responded "It's a dirty game." - Source
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Don't even speak to me.

St. Joseph, Patron of the Universal Church.

Pray very much for the Church and the Holy Father, and the Bishops and the priests in communion with him.

Waiting for the bus

Near the Arch of Constantine.
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Photo credit: S. Sanders

Making saints.

Heroic virtue.

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All Catholics are called to sanctity at Baptism - which means all of us, no matter our state in life, are called to be saints, as Christ said, "Be holy as your Heavenly Father is holy" (Matthew 5:48). Our holiness is the holiness of the Holy Trinity dwelling within us. For a person's holiness to be recognized by the Church, the person's cooperation with grace needs to have been demonstrated by heroic virtue.

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Prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints.
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During remarks at an event marking the 800th anniversary of the Franciscan order at the Antonianum Pontifical University, the Prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of the Saints, Archbishop Angelo Amato, explained the essence of holiness and what it means when the Vatican recognizes a person's virtues as heroic.

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After recalling that the “original source of the holiness of the Church and in the Church is this Triune God,” Archbishop Amato explained what the Church is declaring when it recognizes a Servant of God's heroic virtue. Receving this recognition is one of the most important steps in the process of canonization.

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He went on to recall that St. Thomas Aquinas considered “heroic virtue as the extraordinary perfection of the rational part of the soul.” St. Thomas, he said, “explains later the relationship between the gifts of the Holy Spirit and virtue. The gifts are indispensable for the baptized to achieve their supernatural dimension. In this context, he speaks of the heroic or divine habit, which indicates a disposition towards the good that is higher than that which is common. Heroic virtue is the exercise of virtue in the eminent degree.” Afterwards, the archbishop said, “In heroic virtue the moral level that is present is above the moral level present in almost all men. - Source

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Helps and guides on the road to sanctity.

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Let me explain something here. This is what the organization Courage is all about. Similar to a third order, or possibly a pious confraternity, Courage offers men and women seeking to live a chaste and celibate life in accord with the Gospel and Catholic moral teaching, an opportunity for support and direction towards realizing their primary vocation, the call to be holy. Within that context, one is helped to practice the virtues to a heroic degree. Not all are called to Courage, but all are called to live chastely according to their state in life, guided by the commandments and the teaching of the Church. Courage helps a man or woman struggling with vice to avoid false teachings and erroneous doctrines.

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“In heroic virtue, Christ becomes visible again in our midst and the saint becomes the mirror of Christ. The saints, moreover, are true operators of the enculturation of the Gospel, not through theories elaborated at a desk, but rather by living and manifesting the sequela Christi (the following of Christ) in their own culture.” - Source

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For more information on Courage click here: http://couragerc.net/

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Art: Ven. Matt Talbot. (Source) Matt Talbot exemplified the heroic virtue of temperance. He practiced the Christian life more or less as a solitary, although he was a member of the third order of St. Francis. The spiritual combat Talbot engaged in was associated with alcoholism, which in his case demanded the renunciation of the behavior, as well as a change in lifestyle.

Walk for a cause - any cause...

It started out to be a lovely morning.

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I actually got up early and went to first Mass on Sunday morning again. I like that very much. At the early Mass the clothing police aren't up yet, so I can get by with my jeans and double t-shirt look that impresses so many of the guys at the Vet's Home.

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So anyway, I'm driving through the park district (Minnehaha Parkway) and sure enough there is another damn walk for something going on. Masses of people walking for I don't know what. With spring and summer upon us, people are always holding these walk-things, and they badger other people to give them money for it. Walk for diabetes, walk for alcoholics, walk for breast enlargements, walk for bladder control, walk for condoms, walk for obedience schools for pets, walk for HDTV, walk for this cause or that cause. Go ahead - walk - but don't ask me for money.

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And stop blocking off thoroughfares. Walker-people are so pesky.

The Cistercians in Norway

The renewal of monastic life.

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Ten years ago, Our Lady of Mississippi Abbey outside of Dubuque, Iowa made a foundation in Norway called Tautra Mariakloster. I met the abbess at Tautra many years ago while I was at New Melleray and once again when I was asked to paint an icon of the Descent Into Hell for their office of vigils. I have always admired these nuns and their fidelity to the Rule of St. Benedict. The Trappistines were actually the first to return Cistercian monasticism to Norway.

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This is how the nuns describe it on their website:

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Not very far from the ruins of a medieval Cistercian monastery, on the island of Tautra in central Norway, seven Cistercians nuns, with the help and support of countless others, have established themselves and have built a new permanent monastery. Most of the founders came from Mississippi Abbey, in Dubuque, Iowa, USA, in 1999, along with two Norwegians, one from the monastery of Wrentham (USA) and one from Laval (France). Since that time, two of the founders returned to their monasteries and a few more joined us, as well as young women who are in the process of entering our monastery from various countries. - Source

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More recently, Trappists from Citeaux have made a men's foundation at Munkeby:

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Munkeby, the "place of the monks" was the third and northernmost Norwegian monastery established by the Cistercians in the 12th century. It was located, typically, close to a river, in central Norway's Trøndelag region. Nearby were the crossroads of a trade route to Sweden, and the popular pilgrimage road from Trondheim to Stiklestad, where Saint Olav fell in battle in 1030 implanting Christianity. Munkeby was one of more than 500 Cistercian monasteries established in Europe in less than a century. Monks, during this period of spiritual enlightenment, were the primary contributors to advancements in social structure, agriculture, forestry and hydraulics.

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The new Munkeby Mariakloster - kloster is Norwegian for monastery - is being constructed over the foundations of a farmhouse in a sheltered rural environment of forest, farmland and pasture. Wood and stone will be primary building materials to blend with the natural landscape. The four founding French monks will establish their discrete presence as a contemplative monastery according to the Rule of Saint Benedict, written in the 6th century. Brother Joel (55) & Cîteaux's Prior, brothers Arnaud (31), Bruno (33) and Cyril (81), have all chosen to be part of the founding community, despite Norway's rude climate and winter darkness at latitude 63º N, not far from the arctic circle. - Source

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Some stuff to think about.

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These foundations are very important for the Catholic Church and monasticism, as well as Norway, whose people and royal family have welcomed their return with enthusiasm and support. The Order of Cistercians of the Strict Observance is solidly Roman Catholic and faithful to the Magisterium.

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Sadly, I came across comments on another blog dedicated to the traditional liturgy where some uber-Catholics somehow felt a need to cast aspersions upon Trappist monastic observance, liturgy, design, and to even go so far as to print detraction concerning at least one member of one of the foundations. Once again, these are the things that annoy the heck out me when it comes to some of the more sanctimonious groups of trads; detraction, calumny, elitist crap.

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I assure you, just because a monastery or parish celebrates the EF of Mass, and prays the Divine Office in Latin using Gregorian chant, does not guarantee the health of the community, nor fidelity to the Magisterium. Something lay people and secular religious must keep in mind is that monasteries, just like parishes, are populated by a diverse crowd of human beings whose opinions and practice ebbs and flows with the rhythm of life; Benedictine monastic life especially is marked by the process of ongoing conversion, seeking God alone. It is always a work in progress, individually and collectively. Lay people can expect too much of consecrated religious, while ignoring the log in their own eye.

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Photos: Top: Community of Our Lady of the Mississippi at Chapter.

Middle: Monks from Citeaux at Munkeby

National Equality Rally in Philadelphia - tis the season.

And yet gay activists claim they are not anti-family...

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"Young people ... are still subject to the beliefs and whims of their parents," Manion said. "All the stigmas are still the same." - Jennifer Manion, director of student services for the gay community at Connecticut College, speaking about eliminating homophobia "as experienced by adolescents too young to benefit from same-sex marriage or job anti-bias laws". - Source

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Art: George Tooker, "Children and Spastics".

Kenneth

The new SA

Straight Advocates of same-sex marriage.

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Any opposition or criticism to anything related to gay sex, gay culture, gay marriage, and the homosexualist movement is now considered a "vicious" attack upon all persons with homosexual inclination. Indeed, Congress passed the hate crimes bill providing gay people with special protections, a move which could likely lead to criminalizing Catholic/Christian teaching on the subject.

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Under the "hate-crimes" legislation, pastors could be prosecuted for preaching the biblical view of homosexuality. Similar laws have been used to prosecute religious speech in the U.S. and abroad.

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Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, hosted a special meeting last night to highlight the dangers and concerns related to the bill.

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“Under this legislation, justice will no longer be equal," he said before the meeting. "Instead, justice will depend on the … protected status of the victim, setting up different penalties for the same crime.

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"I support continuing the American tradition of equal justice under the law, and I oppose this unconstitutional ‘thought crimes’ bill.” - Source

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I believe such laws have been enacted in Canada and the European Union, and it is a work in progress in Brazil. Brazilian President Luiz Lula is promising homosexual leaders that he will continue to seek to criminalize speech that is critical of homosexuality. - Source

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When homosexuality is politically opportune.

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The Governor of New York, "David Paterson, whose approval ratings have plummeted to all-time lows, has recently deflected attention from the poor state of the economy in New York and begun to publicly push for same-sex "marriage" in the state." - Source

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Paterson is lying. He is playing into the hands of gay activists and homosexualists, joining them in revisionist distortions of history. He is using gays to promote himself. Gays in turn are using him to promote their agenda.

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Accusing religious leaders of opposing same sex marriage out of guilt, Paterson stated, ""Where were these leaders of faith when college students of gay and lesbian orientation were beaten and often brutalized for expressing their feelings for each other?" he asked during a speech at the "LGBT Equality Justice Day" event." - Source

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Is he nuts? When was there such a mass persecution across college campuses? Certainly there have been male and female students and adults beaten or killed in gay bashing, but crimes such as these have never been sanctioned and are against the law. Yes, horrible crimes have been committed, I think of Matthew Shepherd, the kid who was beaten and set on fire - although some say it wasn't a gay bashing, but a robbery and senseless beating. I don't know - sounded like a gay bashing to me.

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That is not my point however. What about mothers who kill their kids, women who are beaten and raped and murdered by husbands, boyfriends and men who hate women? What about child molesters and killers, and all the other crimes committed against human beings? We already have laws against these crimes, my question is why do gays feel the need for special protection under the law? They already have equal protection under the law.

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The blind leading the blind - makes no sense.

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Paterson further went on to support his accusations and play into the favor of LGBT activists who know better, as he asked "why religious leaders didn’t speak out in protection of homosexuals in the past, saying that they were silent when gays were "collectively blamed" for the expansion of HIV in the early 1980s."

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Actually, the Catholic Church never got into the blame game, and the Catholic Church was the first to minister to and care for these people.

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"Contrary to the governor's claim that opponents of same-sex "marriage" were silent in the 1980s, Dennis Poust, the Director of Communication for the New York Catholic Conference, said that the Catholic Church in New York was "one of the first responders" to the AIDS crisis. "We’ll hold our record up against anyone’s when it comes to supporting the dignity of all people, including homosexual men and women" he said.

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"The governor in his remarks, that was the most offensive thing, was the idea that we somehow didn’t do anything for people with AIDS," Poust said. The Church was the first to react in the early ‘80s to the HIV crises, by establishing clinics and care facilities for people suffering from the "death sentence," he emphasized. At the time, recalled Poust, Governor Mario Cuomo "praised the Church for really being the leader in the entire state of serving those with this deadly disease." - Source

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All in the family.

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According to Poust, Director of Communication for the New York Catholic Conference, society is seeing the results of "casual divorce" from the '70s and the "out of wedlock children" of the '80s, as the children of this generation now have "all these [psychological] problems" and warned that if gay "marriage" is passed, we will see a "further devaluation of the traditional family" and the result will be a "disaster."

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Once again, I am reminded of Cardinal Siri's warnings concerning the change of feminine psychology and the harmful effects upon the family:

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"The changing of feminine psychology does fundamental and, in the long run, irreparable damage to the family, to conjugal fidelity, to human affections and to human society. True, the effects of wearing unsuitable dress are not all to be seen within a short time. But one must think of what is being slowly and insidiously worn down, torn apart, perverted.

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Why, we ask, ever since men have been men, or rather since they became civilized -- why have men in all times and places been irresistibly borne to make a differentiated division between the functions of the two sexes? Do we not have here strict testimony to the recognition by all mankind of a truth and a law above man?

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The consequences of such violations are not a new outline of man, but disorders, hurtful instability of all kinds, the frightening dryness of human souls, the shattering increase in the number of human castaways, driven long since out of people's sight and mind to live out their decline in boredom, sadness and rejection. Aligned on the wrecking of the eternal norms are to be found the broken families, lives cut short before their time, hearths and homes gone cold, old people cast to one side, youngsters willfully degenerate and -- at the end of the line -- souls in despair and taking their own lives. All of which human wreckage gives witness to the fact that the "line of God" does not give way, nor does it admit of any adaption to the delirious dreams of the so-called philosophers! - Source

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Photo: Members of the Nazi Brown Shirts, known as the SA (an acronym for Sturmabteilung). The SA leader, Ernst Rohm, a close friend of Hitler, and a known homosexual, was eventually murdered by the SS in a purge which became known as The Night of the Longknives. There is evidence homosexuality was more or less condoned within the SA, to what extent has often been disputed. Link removed.

Loving the truth.

Men may come and men may go, because God has left plenty of room for the to and fro of their free-will; but the substantial lines of nature and the not less substantial lines of Eternal Law have never changed, are not changing and never will change. There are bounds beyond which one may stray as far as one sees fit, but to do so ends in death; there are limits which empty philosophical fantasizing may have one mock or not take seriously, but they put together an alliance of hard facts and nature to chastise anybody who steps over them. And history has sufficiently taught, with frightening proof from the life and death of nations, that the reply to all violators of the outline of "humanity" is always, sooner or later, catastrophe. - Source
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May 2 is the feast of St. Athanasius, as well as the First Saturday of Our Lady.

On anger.

"If you are angry, let it be without sin." - Ephesians 4:26

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Only the person who becomes irate without reason, sins. Whoever becomes irate for a just reason is not guilty. Because, if ire were lacking, the science of God would not progress, judgments would not be sound, and crimes would not be repressed.

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Further, the person who does not become irate when he has cause to be, sins. For an unreasonable patience is the hotbed of many vices: it fosters negligence, and stimulates not only the wicked, but above all the good, to do wrong. - John Chrysostom, Homily XI super Matheum, 1c, nt.7

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Thomas on Chrysostom

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In one way, as a simple movement of the will that inflicts punishment not through passion, but by virtue of a judgment of the reason: and in this case, without a doubt, lack of ire is a sin. This is how Chrysostom understands ire when he says: ‘Ire, when it has a cause, is not ire but judgment. For properly speaking, ire is a movement of passion. And when a man is irate with just cause, his ire does not derive from passion. Rather, it is an act of judgment, not of ire.”

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In another way, ire can be understood as a movement of the sensitive appetite agitated by passion with bodily excitation. This movement is a necessary sequel in man to the previous movement of his will, since the lower appetite naturally follows the movement of the higher appetite unless some obstacle prevents it. Hence the movement of ire in the sensitive appetite cannot be lacking altogether, unless the movement of the will is altogether lacking or weak. Consequently, the lack of the passion of ire is also a vice, as it is the lack of movement in the will to punish according to the judgment of reason. - Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae, II, II, q. 158, art. 8

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Therefore, anger does not always cancel out every virtue.

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But you O Lord, have mercy upon me a sinner.

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As for the false hearted, keep them far from me.

May Day

Today is First Friday and the feast of St. Joseph.
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You knew that though. St. Joseph the Worker is my special patron, not just for this year, but always, I have a particular devotion to him and he for me.
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People ask me, why do I post the things I do? I'm not sure. I post about things I know for sure, as well as stuff I've learned. I post about things that trouble me and possibly trouble others. I post about stuff most people would not. I post about lies and liars and phonies and pretenders - in order to uncover the truth. People who pretend don't like that. Sounds like a grand scheme for an ignorant little man, doesn't it? It is, and I fear I will never become humble.
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Anyway, I just write what comes to mind, and believe it or not, there is a story there, a continuum, and it all is fit to be burned.
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Art: Burning Furnace of Charity - T. Nelson, oil on paper

Should women be allowed out of the house?

That question answered here.

Fashion, modesty, decency and menswear for women.

After my post yesterday, I'll be exploring the topic further.

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First, from the current Catechism of the Catholic Church:

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2521. Purity requires modesty, an integral part of temperance. Modesty protects the intimate center of the person. It means refusing to unveil what should remain hidden. It is ordered to chastity to whose sensitivity it bears witness. It guides how one looks at others and behaves toward them in conformity with the dignity of persons and their solidarity.

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2522. Modesty protects the mystery of persons and their love. It encourages patience and moderation in loving relationships; it requires that the conditions for the definitive giving and commitment of man and woman to one another be fulfilled. Modesty is decency. It inspires ones choice of clothing. It keeps silence or reserve where there is evident risk of unhealthy curiosity. It is discreet.

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2523. There is a modesty of the feelings as well as of the body.... Modesty inspires a way of life which makes it possible to resist the allurements of fashion and the pressures of prevailing ideologies.

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The catechism says nothing about menswear on women - or is it implied?
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I'm beginning to think it may be implied. Compare the CCC citations with a document on the subject of modesty and menswear styles for women, composed by Cardinal Siri in 1960 - the same year Sr. Lucy of Fatima stated the secret was to be opened and read, since it would be better understood at that time. And do recall that the '60's were a time of radical change, and not just in women's fashions.
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"...Clothes to be modest need not only to cover the body but also not to cling too closely to the body. Now it is true that much feminine clothing today clings closer than do some trousers, but trousers can be made to cling closer, in fact generally they do, so the tight fit of such clothing gives us not less grounds for concern than does exposure of the body. So the immodesty of men's trousers on women is an aspect of the problem which is not to be left out of an over-all judgment upon them, even if it is not to be artificially exaggerated either.
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However, it is a different aspect of women's wearing of men's trousers which seems to us the gravest. The wearing of men's dress by women affects firstly the woman herself, by changing the feminine psychology proper to women; secondly it affects the woman as wife of her husband, by tending to vitiate relationships between the sexes; thirdly it affects the woman as mother of her children by harming her dignity in her children's eyes. Each of these points is to be carefully considered in turn:
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Modesty inspires a way of life which makes it possible to resist the allurements of fashion and the pressures of prevailing ideologies. - CCC 2523
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A. MALE DRESS CHANGES THE PSYCHOLOGY OF WOMAN. In truth, the motive impelling women to wear men's dress is always that of imitating, nay, of competing with, the man who is considered stronger, less tied down, more independent. This motivation shows clearly that male dress is the visible aid to bringing about a mental attitude of being "like a man." Secondly, ever since men have been men, the clothing a person wears, demands, imposes and modifies that person's gestures, attitudes and behavior, such that from merely being worn outside, clothing comes to impose a particular frame of mind inside.
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Then let us add that woman wearing man's dress always more or less indicates her reacting to her femininity as though it is inferiority when in fact it is only diversity. The perversion of her psychology is clear to be seen.
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These reasons, summing up many more, are enough to warn us how wrongly women are made to think by the wearing of men's dress." - Giuseppe Cardinal Siri, Archbishop of Genoa, 12 June 1960
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Like I said in an earlier post, I don't really care about this issue - although I don't mind seeing women in Ralph Lauren (photo)... Anyway, I doubt many contemporary women could ever be convinced to go back to house dresses. It seems to me, it is too late, just like the Fatima secret and consecration of Russia - the horse left the stable, the train already left the station. However, I find the Cardinal's warning, as well as the timing of his "notification" to be terribly significant. I can't delve into it at the moment, but I hope to post a thing or two in the days to come.
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Cardinl Siri was a leading candidate for the papacy in the conclaves which elected John XXIII as well as Paul VI, and I believe those which elected John Paul I and II. Some Sedevacantists believe Siri was indeed elected but shoved aside in favor of John XXIII, I have no interest in that sort of intrigue - way too Ron Howard for me. Suffice it to say, Siri was a very prominent churchman, and his teaching deserving of great esteem and worthy of serious consideration. Likewise, I don't think I should be making fun of people who reject certain contemporary fashions any longer either. My apologies.