We ask that if you want to send us clothes, you do not send Corinne or Catherine pants, because we consider that to be immodest. Corinne very rarely wears sweatpants, and wears skirts or a dress the rest of the time. We usually dress Catherine in a dress or in a top and her skirt; it is harder with her because it is hard to find baby clothes that cover the diaper and keep going!
Deuteronomy 22:5: A woman shall not be clothed with man’s apparel, neither shall a man use woman’s apparel: for he that doeth these things is abominable before God.
In our culture men wear pants, so women should wear skirts (below the knee) or dresses instead.
Have you ever heard of St. Gianna? Her feast day is April 28. She is the patroness of the Pro-life movement. And St. Gianna wore pants. Here is an article about her life:
J.M.J.T.
SAINT GIANNA BERETTA MOLLA
PRO-LIFE SAINT, DOCTOR AND MOTHER
By: Joseph W. Cunningham, Esquire
Knight of the Immaculata
Schubert, Bellwoar, Cahill & Quinn
Philadelphia, PA
Saint Gianna Beretta Molla, protectress of mothers and families, died in 1962 as a martyr of maternal love . In September of 1961, at the age of 39, Saint Gianna was pregnant with her fourth child when physicians diagnosed a large ovarian cyst which required surgery. The surgeon suggested that Gianna undergo an abortion in order to save her own life. Gianna’s decision was prompt and decisive: “I shall accept whatever they will do to me provided they save the child.” She underwent the surgery but her fate was sealed. The following year, on Good Friday, Gianna was admitted to Monza Maternity Hospital. Her daughter, Gianna Emanuela, was born the next day but Saint Gianna expired seven days later, on April 28, 1962.
According to her biography, For the Love of Life. Gianna Beretta Molla. Doctor and Mother, by Fernando da Riese Pio X, the life of Saint Gianna can be divided into three parts: her life as a young lady and a leader of a group known as “Catholic Action”; her life as a physician, beginning as a surgeon, obstetrician and finally, as pediatrician; and her life as wife and mother.
Gianna Beretta was born on October 4, 1922, the tenth of 13 children born to Alberto and Maria Beretta. Five children died young but the rest had outstanding vocations including two priests, a nun/physician, two physicians (including Gianna), an engineer and a pharmacist.
a. Catholic Action
As member and leader of Catholic Action, a group for young people, Gianna organized retreats, held courses on spiritual exercises and participated in helping the poor and needy of her town. Her motives were twofold: to educate the youth to love God and neighbor and to help the suffering members of the mystical body of Christ. The first duty of a member of Catholic Action was to pray for those who do not love Jesus. In her letters, Gianna encouraged the members to “be living witnesses of the greatness and beauty of Christianity.” She exhorted them not to be afraid to defend God, the Church, the Pope and his priests. She extolled the virtues of Saint Maria Goretti who tells us that “life is beautiful when it is dedicated to great ideals and that to attain them, we must know how to die.”
b. Life as Doctor
In her life as physician, Gianna obtained a degree in Medicine and Surgery in 1949. She elected to specialize in pediatrics and obtained an additional degree in 1952. She collaborated with her brother, Dr. Ferdinando Beretta in a family practice for the next 10 years, exercising her medical skills for the glory of God and to help mankind. Her viewpoint on abortion was direct and unambiguous: “The doctor should not meddle. The right of the child to live is equal to the right of the mother’s life. The doctor cannot decide; it is a sin to kill in the womb.”
c. Life as Wife and Mother
In her life as wife and mother, Gianna entrusted her future to our Blessed Mother. In 1954, a Marian year, Gianna went on a pilgrimage to Lourdes, France as a doctor accompanying a train of sick people. After returning from Lourdes she confided to a friend: ”I have been to Lourdes to ask Our Lady what I shall do: to go to the missions or to marry. I reached home…and Pietro came in!” (her future husband).
After their marriage in 1955, three children were born: Pierluigi (1956), Maria Zita (1957), and Laura (1959). After the baptism, each child was entrusted to the special protection of Our Lady of Good Counsel.
Gianna’s maxim was as follows: “I have always been taught that the secret of happiness is living moment by moment and to thank God for everything that in His goodness He sends us, day after day.” In reply to a question of why she decided to marry, Gianna stated: “The ways of the Lord are all beautiful, provided the end is the same: to save our soul and succeed in taking many others to Heaven to give glory to God.”
Her married life involved much separation from her husband who was obliged to travel to distant countries for his employment. Still, Gianna accepted this sacrifice, even employing the language of Our Lady: “Always FIAT!”
In her last pregnancy, Gianna invoked Our Lady of Desperate Cases to whom she had prayed during medical school. The title was not intended for those in despair but for those seeking special graces.
When Gianna was admitted to the Hospital on Good Friday, April 20, 1962, the medical examination revealed a large, healthy baby and a life-threatening septic peritonitis. After the birth of Gianna Emanuela, Saint Gianna suffered tremendously in body and in spirit. Her acute abdominal pain was surpassed only by her suffering at leaving her four children orphaned. She refused the pain medication as she did not feel it was just to appear before the Lord without much suffering.
On April 26th and 27th, Gianna could not receive Holy Communion because she could not swallow. Gianna begged that the Sacred Host at least be placed on her lips. She repeated continuously, “Jesus, I love You.” Gianna was returned by ambulance to her home where she died on Saturday, April 28, 1962 at 8:00 a.m..
At the funeral held at the Church of Our Lady of Good Counsel, Dr. Jolanda Botti, a pediatrician, stated: “I believe that the memory of Gianna will be a seed that will bear fruit. We cannot think that God has taken away from this world such a noble and dear lady without a very great motive which we cannot understand now.”
Pietro Molla, the husband of Saint Gianna, described her life to their children: “The life of Mamma was an act and a perennial action of faith and charity; it was a non-stop search for the will of God for every decision and for every work, with prayer and meditation, Holy Mass and the Eucharist.”
On July 6, 1991, His Holiness, Pope John Paul II, issued the Decree of Heroicity of Virtue of the Servant of God. On December 21, 1992 the Decree of the Miracle was proclaimed. Finally, on April 24, 1994, Pope John Paul II beatified Gianna Beretta Molla at St. Peter’s Square in Rome. She was canonized by Pope John Paul II on May 16, 2004.
“Pope Nicholas I, on Pants”
Another thing, Corrine.. and I am saying this in love, and am not trying to bait you, or annoy:
That passage in Deuteronomy was referring to women putting on ARMOR, and taking up the sword. The word for MAN in Deuteronomy 22:5 is “geber” and means “mighty man” or “warrior”.
Back when the passage was written, both men and women wore a dress-like garment. Gender in dress was differentiated by how the garment was trimmed, and what else –belts, shoes, headwear, and jewelry– was worn with it, much as is the case with women and men’s outfits today. We all wear pants (and shirts!) but women’s items are cut differently, our outfits are decorated differently, and accessorized differently, just as were women’s outfits in biblical times. It’s when women want to look JUST like men, or men want to appear feminine, that there is a problem. If a woman puts on a man’s suit, shirt, tie, shoes and belt, which were cut for men and sold in the men’s department, the fact that she is wearing men’s clothes is readily apparent.
Likewise, a man who puts on his grandmother’s polyester pantsuit is obviously wearing a woman’s outfit, just the same as if he put on a dress (even if the pantsuit isn’t pink or peach or mint green, and flowered!).
And, here’s where Pope Nicholas I comes into this: the Magisterium has never condemned pants for women (though they have said that dresses are preferable.) In fact, quite the opposite: pants for women have Papal approval.
Back in the early days of the Church, when everyone was still wearing dress-like garments, pants (femoralia) were considered barbaric and effeminate for MEN. The only people wearing them were folks on the fringes of civilization, in Asia and Southeast Europe, and the missionaries there were giving them grief about it, and trying to make them dress like “civilized folk”. But Pope Nicholas I put the kibosh on that, with this letter, where he said that pants, though by nature more suited to men, were OK for use by either sex:
The Responses of Pope Nicholas I to the Questions of the Bulgars A.D. 866 (Letter 99)
Chapter LVIIII.
“We consider what you asked about pants (femoralia) to be irrelevant; for we do not wish the exterior style of your clothing to be changed, but rather the behavior of the inner man within you, nor do we desire to know what you are wearing except Christ — for however many of you have been baptized in Christ, have put on Christ [Gal. 3:27] — but rather how you are progressing in faith and good works. But since you ask concerning these matters in your simplicity, namely because you were afraid lest it be held against you as a sin, if you diverge in the slightest way from the custom of other Christians, and lest we seem to take anything away from your desire, we declare that in our books, pants (femoralia) are ordered to be made, not in order that women may use them, but that men may. But act now so that, just as you passed from the old to the new man, [cf. Eph. 4:22-24; Col. 3:9-10] you pass from your prior custom to ours in all things; but really do what you please. For whether you or your women wear or do not wear pants (femoralia) neither impedes your salvation nor leads to any increase of your virtue. Of course, because we have said that pants are ordered to be made, it should be noted that we put on pants spiritually, when we restrain the lust of the flesh through abstinence; for those places are constrained by pants in which the seats of luxury are known to be. This is why the first humans, when they felt illicit motions in their members after sin, ran into the leaves of a fig tree and wove loin cloths for themselves.[cf. Gen. 3:7] But these are spiritual pants, which you still could not bear, and, if I may speak with the Apostle, you are not yet able; for you are still carnal.[I Cor. 3:2] And thus we have said a few things on this matter, although, with God’s gift, we could say many more.”
Cynthia:
John Paul II, being a non-Catholic anti-pope, has no jurisdiction within the Catholic Church to canonize saints, and there are a good number of people canonized by the Conciliar religion whom we can be fairly sure are in Purgatory at best, and certainly not deserving the honour of canonization.
Note that as Catholics, we recognize that private interpretation of Sacred Scripture is, while tempting, not to be practised in any authoritative form by individual laymen. The Church has always taught that it is immodest and wrong for women to wear men’s clothing, including pants. Furthermore, while men’s vs women’s dress may vary in different cultures, certain pants (especially jeans) also have a stimulative effect (not sure the best way to phrase this) when seen on women, this tempting men to lust after them. I would suggest that “femoralia”, regardless of similarities to modern pants, are still not pants.
Luke, since you are a Protestant it is not surprising that you view this a bit differently.
But the Church has NOT always taught that pants for women are wrong, or that it is wrong for men and women to wear similar garments, as long as they are SIMILAR, and not IDENTICAL. Pope Nicholas’s letter proves this, you must agree, since back when it was written, the Refomation had not yet happened, and he spoke for the whole church. (and BTW, femoralia were indeed pants. Archaeological evidence proves this.)
But I agree with you on one point, that tight jeans are not nice for anybody. Catholics have a term, “near occasion of sin” which roughly translates to a thing or situation which can tempt someone to do wrong, and we avoid such things or situations; also, out of charity we avoid BEING a near occasion of sin to others. Seeing women in tight jeans tempts men, and seeing men in tight jeans tempts women. So wearing tight jeans isn’t a charitable thing to do, for anyone!
You misunderstand. I am a Catholic, not a protest-ant (the non-Catholic I was referring to was the heretic JP2). The Church has always taught it is wrong for women to wear men’s clothing. Corinne has done more research on this matter than I have and knows the specific references and such, so I will leave the rest of your post for her to refute.
By the way, the protest-ant rebellion did not split the Church. The protest-ants, like the schismatics and heretics before them, are still outside the Church of Christ.
Luke, you write, “The Church has always taught it is wrong for women to wear men’s clothing” , to which I would agree. But Pope Nicholas’s letter proves that since the ninth century the Church has considered it acceptable for women to wear those pants made specifically for them.
But I am very confused. If you are not a Protestant (or a schismatic or a heretic), why are you saying this about Pope John Paul II? I don’t mean to pry or be rude, but what is your denomination?
Thanks for your comments, Cynthia. I took a few hours to reply because we are cleaning in preparation for guests and I took a nap with our daughter. I hope my post answers some questions and explains things.
Luke, sorry but I don’t believe the Church has actually come out and said pants are definitely immodest for women, just that they’re a really bad idea.
Yes, Cynthia, I’ve heard of Gianna Molla. It is certainly saintly to give up one’s life for one’s child if there is no other morally acceptable medical option. I still consider Our Lady of Guadalupe to be the patroness of the unborn though.
Have you seen the pictures of Mary at her apparitions? She was always dressed in beautiful, long flowing robes: http://www.olrl.org/pictures.shtml
I try to dress as she did, and the best way I know to do that, besides wearing dresses all the time, is to wear good shirts with high necklines (turtlenecks and sweatshirts for this season!) and ankle-length skirts. My skirts are so comfortable and I love feeling so feminine in them. This article talks more about that: http://olrl.org/virtues/modesty.shtml
Here is Cardinal Siri on men’s clothing worn by women: http://olrl.org/virtues/pants.shtml
and more from the Magisterium: http://olrl.org/virtues/modcrus.shtml
And this is a page I was looking for; the first time I saw it, it had pictures of how women dressed through the centuries and how it got worse after the Reformation, but this is text-only and in PDF format: http://hometown.aol.com/thomasaquinas87/origins/misc/attire.pdf It explains a little about how women started to wear pants in this modern age, and also gives quotes from the Magisterium about modesty.
God bless you!
I am a Catholic, and there is no such thing as a “denomination” within Christ’s Church: all of us believe the doctrines and dogmas of the Church in their entirety– we are truly united as Christ established us.
Antipope John Paul II was the leader of a non-Catholic sect, just as the various protest-ant sects had their own leaders. He, like his predecessors, denied Catholic doctrine and even dogma during his reign and as thus was not even Catholic, let alone a Pope. The sect he led, which antipope Benedict XVI now leads, was founded in 1958 by a group of Jews, Freemasons, and protest-ants aiming to destroy the true Church. They failed in their goal, but they did manage to fool the majority of the world into thinking their new sect was in fact the Catholic Church. From there, they called the Vatican II “council” and created mockeries of the Catholic Sacraments and Mass. As a result, numerous Catholics, perhaps including yourself, have been misled into beliveing them to be your authority, and perhaps even accepting some of their many errs.
I recommend reading Bishop Pivarunas’s article on the vacancy of the Apostolic See: http://www.cmri.org/02-vacancy.html
A quick Google search should also be able to come up with at least one comprehensive list of the heresies taught by Antipope John Paul II.
Hi Corrine… I read the links you provided. They are very good, and you have an interesting website too.
I came across this article today on Deuteronomy 22:5 by accident on a Google search, while doing some research on Father Kunkel, who led the Church’s modesty crusade before the Vatican II debacle. Father Kunkel’s quote is near the bottom. I don’t agree with all of it, and you probably won’t either, though for different reasons :) , but the whole thing is pretty interesting reading, nonetheless, so I thought I’d pass it along to you:
http://www.seekwisdom.org/articles/deut22_5.htm
God Bless you and yours!