Vatican Paper On Mini-skirts

Press, Volume CVII, Issue 31379, 26 May 1967, Page 2

Vatican Paper On Mini-skirts

(N.Z. Press Assn.—Copyright) “ VATICAN CITY, May 25.

Claudia Cardinale not withstanding, the Roman Catholic church continues to frown on such “audacious or irreverent forms of costume” as the mini-skirt, the Vatican newspaper, “Osservatore Romano,” said yesterday. It resurrected the case of the Italian actress and the mini-skirt she wore to an audience with Pope Paul in St. Peter's Basilica on May 6, in an unsigned editorial entitled “Sacred and Profane.” The Pope ignored Miss Cardinale’s mini-skirt and the newspaper did did not mention her by name. But it made it clear that the editorial was referring to her when it said: “Audacious or irreverent forms of costume, now and always, fall under the unequivocal judgment of common morality and Christian sensibility."

The editorial, the second such condemnation of kneebaring attire since the audience, said the episode was “purely marginal” but there was a need to set the record straight “so as not to perpetuate misunderstandings.”

The Vatican City weekly, “Osservatore Della Demenlea,” printed an article four days after the audience calling mini-skirts “unladylike” and their wearers “brainless women.”

During the crowded audience—for theatre and communications people—Miss Cardinale was photographed with the Pope. She was veiled but her black dress very definitely ended above her knees. “Osservatore Romano” said many readers had “expressed shock or perturbation about the fact that an actress in indiscreet attire (a mini-skirt) was admitted to the audience.” It expressed regret that the mini-skirt of an actress, which stood out more in the photographs than in the crowd of her celebrated colleagues—all veiled, covered and discreet —might be better remembered than the Pope’s speech. Invitations were issued “without conditions or restrictions,” the newspaper said, “on the well-founded supposition of the awareness of the participants of the religious circumstances and sacred place of the meeting.”