Repost: What is Indecent Dress? Fr. Winfrid Herbst Replies (1946)

[42] Since so much is said and written about indecent dress of women, will you tell me what is really considered indecent dress by the supreme authority of the Church? What are Catholic women to do, or not to do?

We have an authoritative statement in the Instruction on this matter issued by the Sacred Congregation of the Council, January 12, 1930. That Instruction incorporates by reference a letter of the Sacred Congregation of Religious, August 23, 1928, to the religious communities [43] in the city of Rome conducting girls' schools. In that letter specific directions are given as to what the Holy See considers unbecoming dress for Catholic women and girls. We quote the following as given in a leaflet published by the Central Bureau of the Catholic Central Verein, with the Imprimatur of the Most Rev. John J. Glennon, Archbishop of St. Louis: "In order that uniformity of understanding prevail in all institutions of religious women regarding the cases in which the afore-cited [sic] prescriptions of the Congregation of Religious apply, we recall that 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 knees. Furthermore, dresses of transparent material are improper, as also flesh-colored stockings, which suggest the legs being bare."

Even ordinarily good Catholic women and young ladies are often unconscious of the indecency of modern dress and its offence against public Christian morality, due to the prevailing spirit of liberty in its exaggerated form and the lack of delicacy of Christian modesty lost through contact with life in the midst of an overwhelmingly large neo-pagan population that is mostly Christian in name only. What is necessary is persistent and uniform teaching of the high sense of Christian morality evidenced in the lives of the saints and the vast majority of our Catholic ancestors and corresponding practice by our Catholic women. The following dialogue illustrates what we mean:

"Yes, I know, I think I really could dress a bit more modestly if I just wanted to, but, really, I don't see why. Everybody's doing..."

"Now, now!" I admonished her. "Don't say anything silly. You don't see why you shouldn't [44] be a slave to extreme fashion. Why, even you must have read those forceful words spoken by Pope Pius XI not long ago. Remember them? Listen: 'The unfortunate mania for fashion causes even honest women to forget every sentiment of dignity and modesty. The decrease of womanly reserve has always been a sign of social decadence. The vanity of women causes the disintegration of the family. An immodest mother will have shameless children. A shameless girl cannot be a good wife. It is possible to dress with ladylike decorum without imitating monastic severity.'"

"Yes, I know. But I don't see why..."

"But I see why—why you should always be careful not to offend in the matter of dress, regardless of what others may do or say. If your dress is of such a kind as to constitute a sensual appeal to men and to encourage other girls to follow your bad example, you are both directly and indirectly giving scandal and leading others into temptation. Of course, a girl may dress well and attractively, if she does not offend against the laws of modesty. But charity demands that she assist others in their struggle against sin and shield them from temptation, instead of doing just the opposite. If she boldly displays her seductive charms, then she has no reason to resent it if insult is offered. She throws out a challenge. She has freely given up her right to be treated as a lady."

"But one gets used to it. So I don't see why..."

"You say 'one.' Who gets used to it? When a girl first appears in an immodest costume she feels very guilty and embarrassed. But soon she does, alas! get used to it: her sense of modesty becomes blunted, her maidenly reserve gradually vanishes. Then her love of chastity dies out, and sin and vice are not far off. Alas for those [45] who force themselves to cast away that saving sense of shame, virtue's greatest protection in this regard! Who gets used to it? Do the men? Some do, perhaps, others don't. Immodest dress, as being co-operation in sin, may earn for its wearer a long and painful purgatory. Of course, I cannot give any universal rule as to how far you can go without offending God. Time and place and different circumstances—all must be taken into consideration. Moreover, we shouldn't try to see how close we can get to a mortal sin without falling into it. We should rather try to see how far we can remain from even venial transgressions."

She was silent now. Poor girl! Why hadn't some sensible mother told her these things long before—and taught her how to dress? I continued, "And think of this, the immodestly dressed girl even comes to church to distract and tempt those who are praying in the holy place. What a mockery prayer is on such lips! 'Hail, Mary, full of grace,' she says. 'And I am full of sin,' she might add, if she be a seductress in the house of God. In improper costume such a girl will even approach the table of the Lord. But God forbid that I should think it is done out of malice. Rather let me call it ignorance and weakness of the saddest kind.

"After all, real beauty is not in the outlines of the body, but in mind, personality, and heart—the cultivated mind, the heard for sensible thinking, the engaging personality, the sterling character. Beauty of soul, reflected from the eyes, radiating from the countenance—that is true beauty. And where we find sterling character there the laws of health are not defied in slavish obedience to the caprices of fashion; there natural physical beauty adds modest charm to the already engaging personality. 

"Disregard all comment. Avoid all excess. [46] You can dress attractively and yet in an inconspicuous manner. If others offend God, that is no reason why you should offend Him by following their pernicious example.

"Start a new movement. Set a good example. You will soon have imitators. Resolve: 'I will never dress in such a way as to feel ashamed of myself. I will never dress to kill—to kill the souls of men.'"

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Source: Rev. Winfrid Herbst, Questions of Catholics Answered (St. Nazianz, WI: The Society of the Divine Savior, 1946), 42–46.