[212] In virtue of the Supreme Apostleship which he exercises in the universal Church, His Holiness, Pius XI, has never ceased to inculcate in word and writing that precept of St. Paul (I Tim. II, 9, 10): "Women also in decent apparel; adorning themselves with modesty and sobriety ... as it becometh women professing godliness, with good works."
And on many occasions the same Supreme Pontiff has reproved and sharply condemned the immodesty in dress which today is everywhere in vogue, even among women and girls who are Catholics; a practice which does grave injury to the crowning virtue and glory of women, and moreover unfortunately leads not merely to their temporal disadvantage, but, what is worse, to their eternal ruin and that of other souls.
It is no wonder, then, that Bishops and other Ordinaries of places, as becomes ministers of Christ, have in their respective dioceses unanimously resisted in every way this licentious and shameless fashion, and in doing so have cheerfully and courageously borne the derision and ridicule sometimes directed at them by the ill-disposed.
Accordingly this Sacred Congregation for the maintenance of discipline among clergy and people, in the first place accords merited approval and praise to this vigilance and action on the part of the Bishops, and moreover earnestly exhorts them to continue in the purpose and undertaking they have so well begun, and to pursue them with even greater vigor, until this contagious disease be entirely banished from decent society.
That this may be accomplished with greater ease and security, this Sacred Congregation, in pursuance of the orders of His Holiness, has determined upon the following regulations on the subject:
I. Especially pastors and preachers, when they have the opportunity, must, according to those words of St. Paul (II Tim. 4, 2): "be instant, reprove, entreat, rebuke," to the end that women may wear clothes of becoming modesty, which may be an ornament [213] and safeguard of virtue; and they must also warn parents not to permit their daughters to wear immodest clothes.
II. Parents, mindful of their very grave obligation to provide especially for the moral and religious education of their children, must see to it with special care that their girls receive solid instruction in Christian doctrine from their earliest years; and they themselves must by word and example earnestly train them to a love of modesty and chastity. After the example of the Holy Family they must strive so to order and regulate the family that every member of it shall find at home a reason and inducement to love and to cherish modesty.
III. Parents should also prevent their daughters from taking part in public drills and athletic contests. If the girls are obliged to take part in them, the parents must see to it that they wear a costume that is entirely modest, and must never permit them to appear in immodest dress.
IV. Heads of girls' schools and colleges must strive so to imbue the hearts of their girls with the love of modesty that they may be induced to dress modestly.
V. They shall not admit to the schools or colleges girls who are given to immodest dress; and if any such have been admitted, they shall be dismissed unless they change their ways.
VI. Nuns, in accordance with the Letter of 23 Aug., 1928, of the Sacred Congregation of Religious, shall not admit to their colleges, schools, oratories, or amusement centers, nor allow to remain there any girls who do not observe Christian modesty in dress; and in the education of their charges they shall take special care to sow deeply in their hearts a love of chastity and Christian modesty.
VII. Pious associations of women shall be established and fostered for the purpose of restraining by counsel, example, and activity, abuses regarding immodest dress, and of promoting purity of morals and modesty of dress.
VIII. Women who wear immodest clothes should not be admitted to these associations; and those who have been admitted, if they afterward commit any fault in this regard and fail to amend after being warned, shall be expelled.
IX. Girls and women who are immodestly dressed are to be refused Holy Communion and excluded from the office of sponsor [214] in the sacraments of baptism and confirmation; and in proper cases are even to be excluded from the church.
X. On such feasts throughout the year as offer special opportunities for inculcating Christian modesty, especially on the feasts of the Blessed Virgin, pastors and priests who have charge of pious unions and Catholic associations should not fail to preach a timely sermon on the subject, in order to encourage women to cultivate Christian modesty in dress. On the feast of the Immaculate Conception, special prayers shall be recited every year in all cathedral and parish churches, and when it is possible there shall also be a timely exhortation by way of a solemn sermon to the people.
XI. The diocesan Council of Vigilance, mentioned in the declaration of the Holy Office, 22 March, 1918,[footnote 1] shall at least once every year treat especially of the ways and means of providing effectively for modesty in women's dress.
XII. In order that this salutary action may proceed with greater efficacy and security, Bishops and other Ordinaries of places shall every third year, together with their report on religious instruction mentioned in the Motu proprio, Orbem Catholicum, of 29 June, 1923,[footnote 2] also inform this Sacred Congregation upon the situation as regards women's dress, and upon the measures that will have been taken in pursuance of this Instruction.
[Source of translation:] AAS 22-26; S.C. Conc., Instruction, 12 Jan., 1930. Periodica, 19-195.
[Footnotes:]
1. See c. 6; AAS 10-136.
2. See c. 1329; AAS 15-327.
Source: "Council of Vigilance: To Treat of Modesty in Women's Dress (Instruction, S.C. Conc.) AAS 22-26, 12 Jan., 1930," Canon Law Digest 1 (1917-1933): 212–214.
Under: Book II, Persons, Canon 363:
§1. The diocesan Curia consists of those persons who render assistance in the governance of the whole diocese to the Bishop or others who govern the diocese in the place of the Bishop.
§2. Belonging to it, therefore, are the Vicar General, officialis, chancellor, promoter of justice, defender of the bond, synodal judges and examiners, pastor consultors, auditors, notaries, couriers, and citation servers.
[Translation source: Edward N. Peters, The 1917 Pio-Benedictine Code of Canon Law in English Translation with Extensive Scholarly Apparatus (San Francisco, CA: Ignatius Press, 2001), 144.]
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An alternate English translation may be found here: https://suburbanbanshee.wordpress.com/2018/04/21/de-inhonesto-feminarum-vestiendi-more/
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[The following is copied from the online scanned edition of the AAS on the Vatican website; some of the Latin is undoubtedly mis-scanned. Unlike the earlier AAS, where the page numbers are 22-26, in this edition, the pages are 26-28. Here is a link to the relevant file on the Vatican website: http://www.vatican.va/archive/aas/documents/AAS-22-1930-ocr.pdf]
[26] SACRA CONGREGATIO CONCILII INSTRUCTIO AD ORDINARIOS DIOECESANOS: DE INHONESTO FEMINARUM VESTIENDI MORE
Vi supremi apostolatus, quo in universa Ecclesia divinitus fungitur, Ssmus Dominus Noster Pius Papa XI verbis et scriptis nunquam destitit illud S. Pauli (I ad Tim., II, 9,10) inculcare, videlicet: «mulieres in habitu ornato cum verecundia et sobrietate ornantes se, et... quod decet mulieres, promittentes pietatem per opera bona ».
Ac saepenumero, occasione data, idem Summus Pontifex improbavit acerrimeque damnavit inhonestum vestiendi morem in catholicarum quoque mulierum ac puellarum usum hodie passim inductum, qui non modo femineum decus atque ornamentum graviter offendit, sed nedum in temporalem earumdem feminarum perniciem verum etiam, quod peius est, in sempiternam, itemque in aliorum ruinam miserrime vertit.
Nihil igitur mirum, si Episcopi ceterique locorum Ordinarii, sicut decet ministros Christi, in sua quisque dioecesi pravae huiusmodi licentiae ac procacitati modis omnibus unaque voce obstiterunt, derisiones nonnumquam ac ludibria ob hanc causam sibi a malevolis illata aequo fortique animo tolerantes.
Itaque hoc Sacrum Consilium cleri populique disciplinae provehendae cum eiusmodi Sacrorum Antistitum vigilantiam et actionem merita probatione ac laude prosequatur, tum eosdem vehementer hortatur ut consilia atque incepta opportune inita insistant et alacrius pro viribus urgeant, quoadusque hic pestíferas morbus ex honesta hominum consortione penitus extirpetur.
Quod ut facilius ac tutius ad effectum deducatur, haec Sacra Congregatio, de mandato Sanctissimi Domini, ea quae sequuntur ad rem statuere decrevit:
I. Parochi praesertim et concionatores, data occasione, secundum illud Apostoli Pauli (II ad Tim., IV, 2) instent, arguant, obsecrent, increpent ut feminae vestes gestent, quae verecundiam sapiant quaeque sint ornamentum et praesidium virtutis; moneantque parentes ne filiae indecoras vestes gestare sinant.
[27] II. Parentes, memores gravissimae obligationis qua tenentur prolis educationem in primis religiosam et moralem curandi, peculiarem adhibeant diligentiam, ut puellae a primis annis in doctrina christiana solide instituantur atque in earum animo ipsi, verbis et exemplo, amorem virtutum modestiae et castitatis impense foveant; fairiiliam vero, Sacrae Familiae exempla imitati, ita constituere atque gubernare satagant, ut singuli verecundiae amandae atque servandae inter domesticos parietes habeant causam et invitamentum.
III. Parentes iidem filias a publicis exercitationibus et concursibus gymmcis arceant; si vero eisdem filiae interesse cogantur, curent ut vestes adhibeant quae honestatem plene praeseferant; inhonestas vero vestes illas gestare nunquam sinant.
I[V]. Collegiorum moderatrices et scholarum magistrae modestiae amore puellarum animos ita imbuere enitantur, ut eaedem ad honeste vestiendum efficaciter inducantur.
[V]. Eaedem moderatrices ac magistrae puellas, ne ipsarum quidem matribus exceptis, quae vestes minus honestas gestent, in collegia et scholas ne admittant, admissasque, nisi resipiscant* dimittant.
VI. Religiosae, iuxta litteras die xxiii mensis Augusti, a. MDCCCCXXVI[II], datas a Sacrae Congregatione de Religiosis, in sua collegia, scholas, oratoria, recreatoria puellas ne admittant, admissas ne tolèrent, quae christianum vestiendi morem non servent: ipsae vero in alumnis educandis peculiare adhibeant studium, ut in earum animo sancti pudoris et verecundiae christianae amor altas radices agat.
VII. Piae instituantur et foveantur feminarum Associationes, quae consilio, exemplo et opere finem sibi praestituant cohibendi abusus in vestibus gestandis christianae modestiae haud congruentibus et promovendi morum puritatem ac vestiendi honestatem.
VIII. In pias Associationes feminarum ne illae admittantur, quae inhonestas vestes induant; admissae vero, si quid postea hac in re peccent et monitae non resipiscant, expellantur.
I[X.] Puellae et mulieres, quae inhonestas vestes induunt, a Sancta Communione et a munere matrinae in sacramentis Baptismi et Confirmationis arceantur, atque, si casus ferat, ab ipso ecclesiae ingressu prohibeantur.
X. Cum incidunt per annum festa, quae modestiae christianae inculcandam peculiarem exhibeant opportunitatem, praesertim, vero.festa B. M. Virginis, parochi et sacerdotes piarum Unionum et Catholicarum Consociationum moderatores feminas ad christianum vestiendi morem, opportuno sermone revocare atque excitare ne praetermittant. In festo autem Beatae Mariae Virginis sine labe conceptae peculiares preces in omnibus cathedra-
[28] libus et paroecialibus ecclesiis quovis anno peragantur, habitis, ubi fieri potest, opportunis cohortationibus in soHemni ad populum concione.
[XI]. Consilium dioecesanum a vigilantia, de quo in declaratione Sancti Officii die xxii mensis Martii, a. MDCCCCX VIII data, semel saltem in anno de aptioribus modis ac rationibus ad feminarum modestiae efficaciter consulendum ex professo agat.
XII. Quo vero haec salutaris actio efficaciter et tutior succédât, Episcopi aliique locorum Ordinarii, tertio quoque anno, una simul cum relatione de religiosa, institutione, de qua in Litteris Orbem catholicum die xxi x mensis Iunii, a. MDCCCCXXin Motu proprio datis, etiam de rerum conditione ac statu circa feminarum vestiendi morem deque operibus ad normam huius Instructionis praestitis, hanc Sacram Congregationem certiorem reddant.
Datum Romae, ex aedibus Sacrae Congregationis Concilii, die XII mensis Ianuarii in festo Sacrae Familiae, anno MDCCCCXXX.
£8 D. CAED. SBARBETTI, Episc. Sabinen, et Mandelen., Praefectus.
L. $ S.
Iulius, Ep. Lampsacen., Secretarius.
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