Endnotes 1 Sensus fidei: sense or understanding of the truths of the faith. 2 G. K. Chesterton, What’s Wrong with the World, Part III, Chapter 10: The Higher Anarchy. 3 And this regardless of whether the Blessed Sacrament is in the tabernacle or not, even though it is especially required when approaching the altar for Holy Communion. 4 Some argue that since the 1983 Code abolished the 1917 Code, any prescriptions that were not resumed in the later code are abolished as well. This is flimsy canonical reasoning, since legitimate customs stand unless they are specifically abrogated or fall into universal disuse. Furthermore one of the principles that governed the 1983 revision was simplification. Many things were omitted in order to make for a corpus of laws that was easier to use. A point in case is the canon that forbade enrolment in Freemasonry. The mention was omitted in the new code, but the Holy See has recalled on at least two occasions that such enrolment is still forbidden by the very nature of Freemasonry, which is incompatible with the Catholic faith. Mutatis mutandis, the situation with the veil is similar, but the case is even more clearcut: by the very nature of the apostolic precept and the universal custom of the Church from antiquity, it is not required that the custom be recalled for it to be valid, even though it is to be hoped that it one day will be. 5 Cf. Eph 5:28-33. 6 St Elizabeth of the Trinity, Heaven In Faith, Second Day. 7 A sacrilege is the abuse of a sacred person, object or place. Since a church is a place consecrated to God, the giving of scandal through immodest dress while there takes on the added gravity of a sacrilege. 8 I knew a priest in my youth who was clear on this point: if the gowns were not modest, the wedding would not take place. To avoid this, it has been suggested that priests should have a photo album with acceptable gowns so that young bridesto-be can choose well in advance one that is modest, instead of putting the priest before the fait accompli on the day of the wedding. 9 “The parish priest and especially the preacher, when occasion arises, should according to the words of the Apostle Paul (2 Tim 4:2) insist, argue, exhort and command that feminine garb be based on modesty and womanly ornament be a defence of virtue. Let them likewise admonish parents to cause their daughters to cease wearing indecorous dress… Girls and women dressed immodestly are to be debarred from Holy Communion and from acting as sponsors at the Sacraments of Baptism and Confirmation; further, if the offence be extreme, they may even be forbidden to enter the church” (Decree of the Congregation of the Council, by the mandate of Pope Pius XI, 12 January 1930) 10 Cf. G. K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy, ch. 2. 11 See St Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae, IIa-IIae, q. 151, a. 1. 12 Bishop Athanasius Schneider’s definition in the catechism Credo, q. 525. 13 Cf. Summa Theologiae, IIa-IIae, q. 160, a. 1. 14 Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2521. 15 St Francis de Sales, Introduction to the Devout Life, Part 3, ch. 3. 16 Pius XII, July 17, 1954 17 G. K. Chesterton, The Shadow of the Shark, Adventures of Gabriel Gale. 18 Pius XII, Address to a Congress of the Latin Union of High Fashion, November 8, 1957. 19 See, among many others, Rom 12:2 (“Be not conformed to this world; but be reformed in the newness of your mind, that you may prove what is the good, and the acceptable, and the perfect will of God”); 1 The 4:35 (“this is the will of God, your sanctification; that you should abstain from fornication; that every one of you should know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honour: not in the passion of lust, like the Gentiles that know not God”); 1 Cor 5:9-13 (“I have written to you, not to keep company, if any man that is named a brother, be a fornicator, or covetous, or a server of idols, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner: with such a one, not so much as to eat”). 20 Pope Pius XII, Allocution to Catholic Girls, 22 May 1941. 102
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