Sorry folks, I understand your point, I really do. However, the clothes do not make the woman, the woman makes the clothes.  An repented prostitute in a ling flowing dress is still an unrepented prostitute. Just as a virtuous virgin in slacks is still a virtuous virgin.  

Once again, the Church has NEVER officially condemned a woman from wearing slacks.

God says otherwise:

“The attire of the body, and the laughter of the teeth, and the gait of the man, show what he is (Eccles 19:27).”

Obviously, the same applies to woman:

Slovenly at masculenized at best; sensuous, vain, scandalous, and immoral at worst.

Condemned in any case.

How foolish.  God looks at the content of a man's soul. Not the clothes on his back.  Ibet there are plenty of prostitutes who waer dresses..

I never said Cardinal Siri said anything that was not true.  His words could also be applied to any modest clothes, not just a long skirt to your calves.  I still didn't read where he said woman must wear long skirts to their calves to enter the gates of heaven.

I'm surprised no one has mentioned this.

Padre Pio on Women's Dress
from Prophet of the People,
by Dorothy M. Gaudiose, pp. 191-2

Women received especially rough treatment from Padre Pio because of current fashions.  He had always been a merciless enemy of feminine vanity.  "Vanity," he said, "is the son of pride, and is even more malignant than its mother.  Have you ever seen a field of ripe corn?  Some ears are tall; others are bent to the ground.  Try taking the tallest, the proudest ones, and you will see that they are empty; but if you take the smallest, the humblest ones, they are laden with seeds.  From this you can see that vanity is empty."

Padre Pio wouldn't tolerate low-necked dresses or short, tight skirts, and he forbade his spiritual daughters to wear transparent stockings.  Each year his severity increased.  He stubbornly dismissed them from his confessional, even before they set foot inside, if he judged them to be improperly dressed.  On some mornings he drove away one after another, until he ended up hearing very few confessions.

His brothers observed these drastic purges with a certain uneasiness and decided to fasten a sign on the church door:  "By Padre Pio's explicit wish, women must enter his confessional wearing skirts at least eight inches below the knees.  It is forbidden to borrow longer dresses in church and to wear them for the confessional."

The last warning was not without effect.  There was a furtive exchange of skirts, blouses, and raincoats, that took place at the last moment in the half-lit church to remedy any failings.

The women made their adjustments, but perhaps not exactly enough.  Padre Pio continued to send some away before giving them a chance to confess.  He would glower at them and grumble, "Go and get dressed."  And sometimes he added, "Clowns!"  He spared no one...  Persons he saw for the first time, or his long-time spiritual daughters.  Often the skirts were decidedly many inches below the knees, but not sufficiently long for his moral severity.

As the years began to weigh on Padre Pio, his daily hours in the confessional were limited to four, equally divided between men and women.  In addition to being dressed properly, they had to know the Italian language, even though he could somehow understand people speaking another language.  But he knew Italian, Latin, and very little French, consistently refusing to hear confessions except in Italian or Latin.

Sometimes when Padre Pio refused to absolve his penitents and closed the small confessional door in their faces, the people would reproach him asking why he acted this way.  "Don't you know," he asked, "what pain it costs me to shut the door on anyone?  The Lord has forced me to do so.  I do not call anyone, nor do I refuse anyone either.  There is someone else who calls and refuses them.  I am His useless tool."

Even the men had rules to follow.  They were not permitted to enter the church with three-quarter length sleeves.  Boys as well as men had to wear long trousers at church, if they didn't want to be shown out of church, that is.  But women in short skirts were his prime targets.  Padre Pio's citadel was perhaps the only place in the world where the fashions of the 1930s still ruled in the 1960s.

(Do you recall what Our Lady of Fatima said about "certain fashions?")

Padre Pio’s attitude towards modesty of wearing apparel on women and girls (also on men and boys) was well-known, docuмented, and always enforced at least in his physical presence. He was especially adamant on the wearing of slacks (and shorts) by women. I had occasion, in April of 1963, to interview, in San Giovanni Rotondo, a Catholic lady, Italian by descent, and fluent in the language of her forbearers, who had been refused absolution in confession, by Padre Pio, BECAUSE SHE SOLD SLACKS AND PANT-SUITS IN HER DRESS SHOP IN VANCOUVER.

 

He commanded her to return home to Canada, and dispose of ALL this stock, and not to give any of the items to people who might wear them, and if she wanted his absolution, she could come back to Italy and receive it, ONLY after she had ruthlessly carried out his orders. The alternative was, she could seek the absolution in another confession, back in Canada but he, Padre Pio, would KNOW whether she had done what she’d been told.

 
He had signs in the Church. Here are two of them:

“The Church is the house of God.

"It is forbidden for women to enter with bare arms or in shorts. It is forbidden for women to enter in trousers, without a veil on their head, in short clothing, low necklines, sleeveless or immodest dresses.”

and...

“By Padre Pio’s explicit wish, women must enter the confessional wearing skirts at least  8 inches below the knee, it is forbidden to borrow longer dresses in Church and wear them to Confession”

Read about Padre Pio's idea of modesty, Ekim. Please.

http://www.catholic-truths.com/truth/?p=381

I never said Cardinal Siri said anything that was not true.  His words could also be applied to any modest clothes, not just a long skirt to your calves.  I still didn't read where he said woman must wear long skirts to their calves to enter the gates of heaven.

No, that would be Pope Pius XII and Cardinal Ottaviani that said that.

Man, you are really digging yourself a deep hole.

By the time this thread is done, you will be back in the Novus Ordo (i.e., they also look for excuses to ignore the teachings of the Church in favor of liberty for their own opinions).

I'm surprised no one has mentioned this.

Padre Pio on Women's Dress
from Prophet of the People,
by Dorothy M. Gaudiose, pp. 191-2

Women received especially rough treatment from Padre Pio because of current fashions.  He had always been a merciless enemy of feminine vanity.  "Vanity," he said, "is the son of pride, and is even more malignant than its mother.  Have you ever seen a field of ripe corn?  Some ears are tall; others are bent to the ground.  Try taking the tallest, the proudest ones, and you will see that they are empty; but if you take the smallest, the humblest ones, they are laden with seeds.  From this you can see that vanity is empty."

Padre Pio wouldn't tolerate low-necked dresses or short, tight skirts, and he forbade his spiritual daughters to wear transparent stockings.  Each year his severity increased.  He stubbornly dismissed them from his confessional, even before they set foot inside, if he judged them to be improperly dressed.  On some mornings he drove away one after another, until he ended up hearing very few confessions.

His brothers observed these drastic purges with a certain uneasiness and decided to fasten a sign on the church door:  "By Padre Pio's explicit wish, women must enter his confessional wearing skirts at least eight inches below the knees.  It is forbidden to borrow longer dresses in church and to wear them for the confessional."

The last warning was not without effect.  There was a furtive exchange of skirts, blouses, and raincoats, that took place at the last moment in the half-lit church to remedy any failings.

The women made their adjustments, but perhaps not exactly enough.  Padre Pio continued to send some away before giving them a chance to confess.  He would glower at them and grumble, "Go and get dressed."  And sometimes he added, "Clowns!"  He spared no one...  Persons he saw for the first time, or his long-time spiritual daughters.  Often the skirts were decidedly many inches below the knees, but not sufficiently long for his moral severity.

As the years began to weigh on Padre Pio, his daily hours in the confessional were limited to four, equally divided between men and women.  In addition to being dressed properly, they had to know the Italian language, even though he could somehow understand people speaking another language.  But he knew Italian, Latin, and very little French, consistently refusing to hear confessions except in Italian or Latin.

Sometimes when Padre Pio refused to absolve his penitents and closed the small confessional door in their faces, the people would reproach him asking why he acted this way.  "Don't you know," he asked, "what pain it costs me to shut the door on anyone?  The Lord has forced me to do so.  I do not call anyone, nor do I refuse anyone either.  There is someone else who calls and refuses them.  I am His useless tool."

Even the men had rules to follow.  They were not permitted to enter the church with three-quarter length sleeves.  Boys as well as men had to wear long trousers at church, if they didn't want to be shown out of church, that is.  But women in short skirts were his prime targets.  Padre Pio's citadel was perhaps the only place in the world where the fashions of the 1930s still ruled in the 1960s.

(Do you recall what Our Lady of Fatima said about "certain fashions?")

Padre Pio’s attitude towards modesty of wearing apparel on women and girls (also on men and boys) was well-known, docuмented, and always enforced at least in his physical presence. He was especially adamant on the wearing of slacks (and shorts) by women. I had occasion, in April of 1963, to interview, in San Giovanni Rotondo, a Catholic lady, Italian by descent, and fluent in the language of her forbearers, who had been refused absolution in confession, by Padre Pio, BECAUSE SHE SOLD SLACKS AND PANT-SUITS IN HER DRESS SHOP IN VANCOUVER.

 

He commanded her to return home to Canada, and dispose of ALL this stock, and not to give any of the items to people who might wear them, and if she wanted his absolution, she could come back to Italy and receive it, ONLY after she had ruthlessly carried out his orders. The alternative was, she could seek the absolution in another confession, back in Canada but he, Padre Pio, would KNOW whether she had done what she’d been told.

 
He had signs in the Church. Here are two of them:

“The Church is the house of God.

"It is forbidden for women to enter with bare arms or in shorts. It is forbidden for women to enter in trousers, without a veil on their head, in short clothing, low necklines, sleeveless or immodest dresses.”

and...

“By Padre Pio’s explicit wish, women must enter the confessional wearing skirts at least  8 inches below the knee, it is forbidden to borrow longer dresses in Church and wear them to Confession”

Read about Padre Pio's idea of modesty, Ekim. Please.

http://www.catholic-truths.com/truth/?p=381

PFT-

It won't matter.

So long as there is no ex cathedra pronouncement on the matter, Ekim will continue to delude himself that the Church has never condemned women wearing men's attire.

Hmm, so he had the wounds of Our Lord, he refused, sitting as an Altar Christus, to absolve a woman, not for WEARING pants, but for selling them to others that they should wear them, and until she THREW THE PANTS AWAY, he was not going to absolve her. He would not hear confessions from ladies in pants. Clearly he was being unjust, and since the Church didn't definitively, ex cathedra, say, that women should not wear pants, he was being far too harsh, and should be responsible for all those women who righteously refused to set aside their virtuous womanly pants that decided not to return to confession after being refused by Padre Pio.

I wonder - to those who believe that a woman will not go to hell for wearing slacks - you are familiar with the term occasion of sin, correct?  Dressing in less than ideal attire may not be a sin, but it certainly is an occasion of sin for both the person wearing the questionable attire and people he or she comes in contact with.  One can be dressed in "modest" slacks, to catch the eye of a passerby, and could potentially be provoking him(or her) to mortal sin.

Universally known modest dress is defined as slacks (no jeans) and a collared shirt for men, skirts(well below the knee), and a blouse for women, in both cases flattering the figure rather than accentuating it.  MEN IT GOES BOTH WAYS - NO JEANS!  

That's normal dress in public as defined not only by Catholic decency, but universal decency about 50 years ago.  There are circuмstances where departing from that dress can be acceptable, but never preferred, and should not be typical.  IE - my mother lives on a ranch and helps my dad with cows and fencing when the need arises.  It is difficult to do in a skirt, so jeans it is.  However, it would be best for her not to be doing such physically demanding work.  PS - when the occasion for jeans arises, it is back to modest dress as soon as the work for the day is completed.