Intention.
In 1377, a woman saved the Catholic Church and universal Christendom. Her name was St Catherine of Siena. She did this with her mind and with her pen, writing hundreds and hundreds of persuasive letters. These letters were opened and read by dignitaries, royals, and churchmen. Outside of trying to save the Church she earned the title Doctor of the Church for her ecclesiology and theology.
At a time when women were often overlooked, Catherine simply didn’t care and just did. Her letters refused to remain unopened, and she defied those who wouldn’t read then. She often began her letters with "Pardon my boldness" before proceeding to sternly admonish powerful men, including telling Pope Gregory XI to "be a man" and fulfill his duties. She described her soul as androgynous and used fluid gendered imagery, suggesting a complex understanding of identity beyond 14th-century limitations. Catherine saw her role as a woman teaching powerful men as a way to "shame" them into holiness, believing that God used "weak" vessels like herself to confound the "strong".
When a letter arrived from Catherine, men eventually feared to ignore her. This powerhouse of influence and duty persuaded them. What happened to women after her?
Next comes St Joan of Arc, bold and strategic. The Church apologized profusely for her unnecessary death. In the face of martyrdom she was more than a man, and after trying her best to be a peacemaker, could not go against her conscience. The Church did not simply "apologize" through a statement; it conducted a formal Rehabilitation Trial between 1452 and 1456. This trial, authorized by Pope Callixtus III, declared the original verdict null and void due to procedural fraud and bias, effectively clearing her name 25 years after her death. She was eventually canonised as a saint in 1920.
One of the issues was Clothing. As a Deborah, a warrior judge, she decided to wear armor and was condemned for wearing men’s clothing. Trying to broker understanding, she could not convince unreasonable men, and in the end was forced to stick to her position and was martyred for it.
Must we forget St Hildegard who taught the lessons she learned publicly, a role strictly forbidden to women at the time? Who criticized powerful men, including bishops and even the Emperor, by framing her rebukes as direct messages from the Divine. Then wrote theological treatises that were officially sanctioned by the Pope. She saw the Earth as her mother, the female as spiritually equal. Unlike many medieval thinkers who saw the womanly body as "defective," Hildegard portrayed women as permeable and porous in a positive sense - a space where God and humanity could connect. She was also a well known composer of music.
Respect.
From the above, and more ( think of Clare of Assisi (1194–1253), Teresa of Avila (1515–1582), Edith Stein (Teresa Benedicta of the Cross) (1891–1942), Angela Merici (1474–1540), Kateri Tekakwitha (1656–1680), Josephine Bakhita (1869–1947), Mary, Mother of Jesus) one should respect the equal capacity of women’s moral agency and conscience.
The Church has never suggested otherwise. The consciences of women are utterly equal to those of men, are not defective, are made in the image of God, and find perfect equality in scripture. Galatians 3:28 states that "there is no longer male and female, for all of you are one in Christ Jesus”.
The Gospel has told us this equality exists. What are we doing to achieve this on earth?
Modesty is often used against women rather than with them. Rather than becoming a helper, it becomes a stick to abuse. Who can blame women who after centuries of finding their free-will unreasonably curtailed, recoil at discussions of modesty? When modesty has been used to beat women up, it is understandable that they go into defensive crouch. Instead of being used as a guide to being pleasing to God, it is used as a weapon. It is not a question of inches, or skirts, but collective trauma finding oneself helpless before judgment when the Gospel calls for perfect liberty and freedom. We should do our utmost to remedy this situation
Everyone is entitled to happiness. The Gospel is one of freedom. Galatians 5:5 “It is for freedom that Christ has set us free.” In Galatians 3:1 , Paul rebukes the Galatian church for abandoning the gospel of grace for legalism, asking who "bewitched" them despite Jesus's redemptive act being clearly portrayed to them. This "bewitching" refers to being misled by false teachers into relying on self-effort and law-keeping rather than faith.
The discussions of modesty are always mindful of the fact that the Church does not set down binding, operative rules for modesty. Only helpful suggestions.
There is a time and a place for everything. Custom is often king.
Matthew 7
“Do not judge, or you too will be judged. 2 For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.
Ultimately, we are called by Christ to "Love your neighbor as yourself" and “Do to others as you would have them do to you.” This, of course, includes all-women. Including those who do not agree with the Christian position, even those who utterly oppose it. It is why racism and sexism are wrong because we are called to respect and love all-people, all-women (African, Asian (including Levantine, Jews, Middle Eastern and East Asian), European (including European Jews, and mixed-race Europeans), Indigenous (including mixed-race), Pasifika - all have had the same trials and conflicts). The Gospel demands we treat all as Sons and Daughters of God. How can one hate when everyday people of open and generous hearts all over the world are trying to solve the same problems? People who are earnestly and with all-dignity trying to make the world a better place? To say that anyone is ontologically bad is completely wrong and contradicts Scripture - it is a blasphemy against God who made everyone in his Image. There are righteous women and men in all societies and cultures which is why the Apostles call for equality and love. It is perhaps an indictment on society that a nursery rhyme can sum up thousands of years of philosophy and theology “Jesus loves the little children, all the children of the world. Red and yellow, black and white, they are precious in his sight". Features such as eye shape or skin color are irrelevant. God has through the agency of evolution used these for the benefit of each individual people. Double eye-lids or mono-eyelids are gifts from God. He is extremely jealous for all-peoples and so universally solicitous he sent his only-begotten Son for redemption. Racism, sexism and prejudice must wilt and die before the light of the Gospel. These are pestilential idols. Anyone who exalts gender or race is committing an extreme blasphemy against God who made all peoples in His image and comprehensively loves them. Galatians 3:28 There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. Matthew 28:19: "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit". Racism and sexism must end here as instruments of the Evil One, the Father of all Lies. We are called to Love Everyone - All Human Children, the People of God, and to defy and frustrate particularism, discrimination and hatred. For the love of God, why can anyone be racist or sexist? Repent for the Love of God and open your minds. Anyone with a human soul is so extremely precious God he sent his only begotten Son to redeem them. And that includes everybody, everybody. Romans 12:2 Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will. Remember, Jesus offered redemption to all people, even naming all the directions of the world in the Universal Gathering (Matthew 8:11,Luke 13:28-29). All men, new Christians and old Christians will sit down with God & Father Abraham. The first shall be last, and the last shall be first" (Matthew 20:16, Mark 10:31). End all racism and sexism.
We expect to be treated with kindness, consideration, respect, giving and accompaniment. We hope others will think well of us and help us to reach our goals, rather than frustrate or sabotage us.
Likewise, with discussions of modesty we must observe perfect charity. While men’s bodies are often seen as either comedic or hazardous, women’s are seen as seductive or undermining of values.
Women are given a harder fate than men. Rather than policing male bodies, women are often subject to harmful discourse and vitriolic derision - either subtly or with open prejudice and discrimination. They are not free to be themselves. Whereas men are given latitude up the point where the become harmful, women are subject to a double standard. Neither criminal, nor unsafe, instead they are seen as seditious and immoral. The body as a Temple of the Holy Spirit, as a vehicle for Grace, as the ability for women’s spiritual movement - finds itself treated with blasphemous contempt. It is not the woman themselves that are the problem, rather the intent. Men are hasty in condemning women, and are solicitous for placing the female spirit in an existential box which turns into a limiting moral prison.
In all these many words, and all this ink, let us not forget that God loves us in extremis. Divine love is most profound and active in the lowest, darkest, or most desperate moments of human existence.
We have been warned by Christ not to judge or condemn, the Holy Spirit has signalled our radical equality before Divinity. Let us approach the topic with understanding, love and compassion.
We cannot and should not deny happiness and agency to others. Nor unduly question their rational decisions.
“But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues in it—not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it—they will be blessed in what they do”. James 1:25
All in all, we cannot forget we are giving guidance. The Church is not with us when we demand legalism and measurements. Out of charity, we cannot condemn those who seek joy and happiness within their own contexts. We can only offer advice, while deferring to allowable conscience and the right of all people who seek the Gospel of Freedom according to Christ.
All we are allowed to do is found 2 Timothy 4:2 “Preach the word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction.”
If you hurt somebody’s feelings and provoke them, you are not doing this as Christ required. Instead one is judging, condemning and separating, when the Holy Spirit has called us to togetherness and love.