A couple of fridays ago I was at church for evening mass. Usually on Fridays there are about 10 faithful present, a small group of regulars.

There is a young lady from France visiting with us. Raised in the SSPX. She’d been in town for about two weeks at that point, and everyone had noticed already that she did not wear a head covering at mass.

During this mass, another young man present decided to fetch her one of the spare mantillas. He gave it to her and she put it on.

Evidently the priest noticed this. Immediately following recession, he brusquely called that young man into the sacristy and everyone present was privy to the loud berating that followed. Nobody could pray and, anyway, it was unpleasant, so we all went downstairs.

The principle supposedly at work, I take it, was that he had publically humiliated the young lady, so public humiliation was his just desert.

I do not think that principle truly applies here, since her disregard for the traditional custom of the Church requires correction and perhaps merits a rebuke. A layman taking it into his own hands during mass was not the ideal course; clearly it would be better done by the priest, away from eyes. Unfortunately he had done nothing about it in the previous two weeks. In my opinion, both the priest’s hesitation to correct and his reaction to the young man were over-the-top, and can only be explained by an excessive regard for the girl’s feelings.

This brings me to a larger point. It is only natural for us to show somewhat more regard for a woman’s feelings than for a man’s. Today, however, in post-feminist culture we see this natural regard exaggerated far beyond reasonable limits. We see a police officer in Toronto ‘named and shamed’, forced to give a public apology and effectively denounced by his superiors, all for advising young women they could lower the odds of sɛҳuąƖ assault by dressing more modestly. We see a young male waiter globally humiliated and fired from his job for writing “fat girls” on a bill given to his (very fat) customers.

And we see a young man publically shouted down by a priest for daring to hand a girl a mantilla during mass.

All of this goes to show that respect for women’s feelings has grown into a harmful pathology through which truth and virtue are suppressed. A woman’s feelings have become socially powerful out of all proportion to their real importance. In certain quarters this pathology is known as “white knighting”, because it is a parody of chivalry.

There are good reasons to believe this pathology affects large numbers of Traditional Catholics. It’s time we moved from sporadic mention to a real discussion of it. Because although a certain additional regard for female sensitivity is natural, its exaggeration is truly a threat to Catholicism, and it is worrisome to see it incipient in traditional priests.

Oh, the young French lady does wear a head covering now.

agree

Examples of white knighting on this forum or other traditional sources can be posted here and discussed.

I think a young woman should be relieved that someone helped her to be properly attired at mass.  I was always heartened and relieved when I saw someone pass a mantilla to an unveiled woman at mass.

Did the young woman take offense at being handed the veil?  The priest just taught her to take offense at someone trying to help her.  The priest just taught everyone there a lesson in cultural marxist feminism.

That's what neocons do in traditionalist organizations.  And the neo-SSPX is neocon.

On the other hand- I have had some irrational, angry brow-beatings by priests.
 I thought we were supposed to hoover it up for the love of God and make excuses until the last possible instant.  I think it is only fair to make certain this only an isolated episode and not a symptom of an ongoing problem of an out-of-control priest.  The girl with no mantilla should have made it her business to say she was sorry, whether she speaks English or not, the sentiment could have been conveyed.  I can't believe anyone who has been around for 2 weeks lacks the intelligence to figure the head covering tradition.

Didn't TKGS say that dress has become much more lax at his chapel since the SSPX took over?

You know how these French can be.

Indeed I do.  Don't know enough, but off the top of my head, I'd say she is the trouble-maker.  I always have extra mantillas at hand and I have never had anyone be anything but grateful to borrow one when necessary.