MODESTY, WE HARDLY KNEW YE

I did not have a daughter, but have been instead blessed with two boys. But I have friends and neighbors with little girls, and I at times feel sorry for them. It's hard enough raising boys, but I think it must be even harder to raise girls today. I also did not have a sister, so perhaps my view is skewed by the unknown. But I continue to pray for the parents of those girls in that they have the courage and the strength to raise them the best they can, and as ladies. I'm raising gentlemen and hope they always act as such. I also hope that when they are ready to date and marry, a lady may be found for them. Looking around the neighborhood, I see the 16-year-old girl next door go out dressed (barely) as if she's heading to the brothel. On Sundays at Mass, I see women and girls dressed almost the same way. As an acolyte, I have to pray for my own sake and keep my eyes focused on the Body of Christ I am distributing at Holy Communion else my eyes be averted to the scantilly clad females in the line. Mary Ann Moresco asks the valid question Where Has Modesty Gone? She, like me, agrees that it begins with the parents:

Our girls are not fully responsible for their dress. It is we, the adults in their world — we who are teachers, educators and most of all, parents, and thus called by God to be the “primary educators” of our children — who have failed to properly shield them. We have failed to teach them the Catholic truths on the subject. “Train a child in the way he should go; even when he is old, he will not swerve from it” (Prv 22:6). We have failed to teach our girls to the point that many young girls do not know what modesty is let alone understand why it is a virtue to be treasured and upheld.

Bombarded by magazines, television and the Internet with a plethora of immodest images at every turn, it is very possible that we adults no longer understand what modesty is ourselves. But when Christ ascended into heaven, He did not abandon us. He sent His Holy Spirit to dwell within us and to speak to us. The Holy Spirit whispers God’s immutable truths to us through the Magisterium, through the Catechism and through His shepherds on earth. The Catechism guides us that modest dress “keeps silence or reserves where there is unhealthy risk of curiosity. It is discreet” (No. 2522). Modesty “means refusing to unveil what should remain hidden” (No. 2521). It is designed to protect our girls.