Kerala bishop’s dress diktat: Girls should not wear short dresses in church
April 3, 2017 by admin
Filed under India, newsletter-india
Kochi, April 3, 2017: The Bishop of Idukki Mar Mathew Anikuzhikattil’s pastoral letter which is meant to be read during the Holy Mass on April 23 seems to be drawing disapproval, going by reports, for its anachronistic streak.
The letter, which suggests means to strengthen the faith of individuals and families and in shaping a Christian culture through practice in the backdrop of the challenges thrown up by modern life, advises girls to wear attires that stretches below their knee when they attend church services.
The letter insists Christian women to follow the practice of retaining exclusive dresses for attending church services.
The Bishop also says in his letter that the names chosen by parents for their new born child are often senseless. The names do not reflect Christian spirit or influence. Each family should care to gives names that reflect the Christian faith and model.
The bishop further advised parents against criticizing priests and monks in the presence of children. Further, he asked parents to restrict the use of mobile phones among children as he found a good lot of children going astray due to mobile phones. He also suggested regulated use of social media such as WhatsApp and Facebook.
Bishop Anikuzhikattil is not new to controversies. In 2015 his remarks that interfaith marriages are against Christianity kicked up a controversy. The Kerala Catholic Bishop’s Council (KCBC) was finally forced to express regrets over the remarks. Last year he came out with a statement that all kinds of birth control measures are counter to God’s will.
Ironically, all such cloistered ideas seem to be coming from religious heads at a time when Pope Francis appears to have softened his stand on the said issues.
– mumbai mirror
Bishop Anikuzhikattil should understand the teachings of Jesus concerning women.’God Created Man and Woman equal. (Genesis 1:26-27). Jesus came down on the men’s behavior. “But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart. (Matthew5: 28).The Talmud tells the religious man, in effect: If you have a problem, you deal with it. It is the male gaze — the way men look at a woman — that needs to be desexualized, not women in public. The power to make sure men don’t see women as objects of sexual gratification lies within men’s — and only men’s — control. The Jewish Law and monotheistic religions treat women as a mere appendage. This is part of a larger battle being waged in between the ultra-Orthodox and the rest of society over women’s place in society, over their very right to have a visible presence and to participate in the public sphere. Is it possible for a religious demand for modesty to be about anything other than men controlling women’s bodies?’