"INSANE DRESS"

Waikato Times, Volume 94, Issue 14773, 12 October 1921, Page 8

"INSANE DRESS"

EVILS OF TO-DAY

PLEASURE AND DISPLAY

Love of pleasure and love of display were referred to Dy Very Rev. Father M'Namara, Provincial of the Order of Franciscans in Australia, as two of Hie great evils of the present clay.

The occasion was a public session in Sydney in connection with the Solemn Triduum to commemorate the seventh centenary of the foundation of the Third Order of St. Francis. Father M'Nainara said that, from, the heights of the Apostolic See, his Holiness ttic Pope could see everything, and he had seen that the love of pleasure and love of display were two of our greatest evils. If persons became wealthy it was not so much with a view to doing good, but that in doing what they considered good they could make display and he admired for extravagance. The Holy Father had pointed out that these two evils were the cause of a great deal of unrest. Why should these people have all the luxuries and others perish with hunger" There was no reason for it. If they took away the

law of Jesus Christ, there was no reason, then, why one .person should not try to possess himself of as much of this world's goods as any other person seemed to have. The Holy Father pointed out in his Encyclical that many women of every age and rank were seized with an insatiable desire to please, and did npt realise how insane were the fashions, which displeased decent persons and offended Cod, as well as causing discontent. This desire, continued Father M'Nainara, was condemned, ,• nd justly condemned, not only by /Ihe true Church, but by everyone iwho loved humanity itself. An insensate display on the part of the female section of the- community • was a very serious assertion to make, but it was made Hie other day by Father Trenad in the early part of their solemn ceremony. There was another side of the question. Men were just as responsible for this state of affairs as the women, because it was not merely themselves that the women wished to please, but their male friends. If they thought that their male friends were not pleased with this display, they would not make it. Therefore, the men were to blame.

There was no sense of shame on the part .of some people. As members of the Third Order, they would be called upon to exert their influence upon the community and admire those who were modest in dress or in any other way. If they all belonged to the Order of St.' Francis all Ibis abuse would be wiped out in one night.

Father M'Namara exhorted Hie females to be modest in dress and deportment, because, if they were not brought up in modest surroundings, no one would get them lo understand what modesty was. "'But, for God's sake," he concluded, "wipe out these dressmakers who make such awful dresses. (Laughter.) They would not make them if you- did not order them." Father Tre'and said thai ladies of the Third Order should combine together to avoid the blot of immodesty in respect of woman's dress. God had put into the heart of every woman a sense of modesty and reserve. What was to be hidden should he hidden, and what was lo be covered should be covered. It was in the nature of every woman iln be attractive. There was • only one right way In be attractive—the way recognised or recommended by St. Paul, when he said, "Lei your modesty be "known lo all." The loveliest allriliulc of a young maiden or ■ " ■' ''•'. I'e would say to the Terliaries to start what they had started in America-—a league against immodesty in dress. uic Apusiuiic Delegate (Archbirtik'p Uiinineo; said that the members of the Third Order could do more than the members of the First or Second Order, as they could operate in the heme both by example and precept. Father M'Namara had reconuiiended them to win,, out Die dressmakers, but he (the Apostolic delegate) Ihoughl it would be best In make them Tprtiarics.