can quite believe in the equality of the sexes”.2 In passing, I might add that anyone who considers attentively the preeminent role the Catholic Church acknowledges to the Blessed Virgin Mary who conceived in her womb and nursed with her own milk God Himself in the flesh, cannot possibly entertain for a single second the absurd claim that the Church is, or was at any time in its history, a misogynist patriarchy intent on oppressing women. A second reason for the veil is that if men represent Christ the Bridegroom, women represent His Bride, the Church. As a bride veils herself on the day of her nuptials, so the woman who veils herself in God’s holy temple acknowledges that she symbolises the Church, and thereby implicitly asks Christ to enter into her heart to make her spiritually fecund by means of His grace. At the same time and for the same reason, by wearing a veil, a woman proclaims that men and women are not interchangeable. She acknowledges the God-given complementarity of man and woman, created in the image of God. Thirdly, wearing the veil is a way of dressing up for God; it tells Him how honoured the woman feels to be able to enter His house to pray, and manifests her humility and submission before Him, thus drawing down His graces ‘and the veil shall separate for you the holy place from the most holy.’ Exodus 26:33 11
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