Why are we addressing modesty on a film production website? Because we are making one! Here you can find more about our film project “Do We Still Blush?”.
Now let’s go to the article!
Throughout history, clothing and fashion have been more than personal choices—they have reflected the moral, spiritual, and cultural state of society. Between the 19th and mid-20th centuries, leaders of the Catholic Church and beyond repeatedly warned that the erosion of modesty was not accidental but part of a larger cultural battle.
1838 – The Strategy of Corruption
On August 9, 1838, a letter between two leading Freemasons declared:
“In order to destroy Catholicism, it is necessary to commence by suppressing woman… but since we cannot suppress woman, let us corrupt her.”
This striking admission reflected a deep recognition: women are the moral guardians of culture. The serpent in Eden approached Eve first, understanding her pivotal role in the destiny of humanity. Even Confucius had long taught that “woman is the moral root of society,” and that the strength of a culture rises or falls with the virtue of its women.
1850s – Mixed Bathing and Morality
In the mid-19th century, debates over mixed bathing—men and women swimming together—revealed widespread moral concerns. Catholics, Protestants, Jews, and Muslims condemned the practice, regarding it as an “occasion for vice.”
The moral anxiety was not new. In ancient Rome, emperors Hadrian and Marcus Aurelius had banned mixed bathing as a threat to virtue. Even in the 1850s, women’s swimwear was intentionally modest: sleeves, skirts, and pantaloons extending below the knee. The guiding principle was simple—modesty safeguards dignity.
1884 – The Warning of Pope Leo XIII
By the late 19th century, Pope Leo XIII addressed the growing influence of secret societies in his encyclical Humanum Genus (1884). He warned that some Freemasons had “plainly determined and proposed that… the multitude should be satiated with a boundless license of vice.” Once immersed in corruption, people could be more easily controlled. Leo XIII’s words foreshadowed cultural battles yet to come.
1917 – Fatima and the Prophecy of Fashions
On May 13, 1917, the Virgin Mary appeared to three shepherd children in Fatima, Portugal. She would later tell young Jacinta Marto that “more souls go to Hell for sins of the flesh than for any other reason.”
Our Lady also prophesied that certain fashions would be introduced that would greatly offend God. Jacinta herself observed that the Church has no fashions, because “Our Lord is always the same.” Her words suggested that modesty is not bound to trends but rooted in eternal truth.
1920–1921 – Fashion and the Crisis of Modesty
The 1920s saw the introduction of women’s slacks on Paris runways, symbolizing a broader rejection of traditional norms. The following year, Pope Benedict XV lamented women’s increasing immodesty in his letter Sacra Propediem(1921):
“One cannot sufficiently deplore the blindness of so many women… they do not fear to cross the threshold of the churches… and even to bear the seducing food of shameful passions to the Eucharistic Table.”
Benedict condemned both immodest clothing and “exotic and barbarous dances” that undermined Christian purity.
1928 – Freemasonry and the Program of Undress
The International Review on Freemasonry (1928) explicitly outlined a long-term cultural program:
“It is necessary to corrupt, that our boys and girls practice nudism in dress… first, undress up to the elbow; then up to the knees… later, the upper part of the chest, the shoulders, etc.”
That same year, Pope Pius XI and his vicar in Rome, Cardinal Basilio Pompili, issued strict guidelines: dresses must cover to the elbows, fall below the knees, and avoid low necklines or transparent fabrics. The contrast between Freemasonry’s strategy of gradual corruption and the Church’s defense of modesty could not have been clearer.
1941 – Pius XII and the Modesty Crusade
During World War II, Pope Pius XII (1939–1958) warned Catholic girls not to adopt fashions once associated with “women of doubtful virtue.” He cautioned that once “women of good reputation” embraced such clothing, society at large would follow them into moral danger.
His admonition was firm:
“If a certain kind of dress constitutes a grave and proximate occasion of sin… it is your duty to give it up.”
Pius XII stressed that mothers bore a sacred responsibility: by allowing their children to grow accustomed to immodest dress, they risked their souls and futures.
1946 – The Bikini and a Cultural Shock
In 1946, designer Louis Réard introduced the bikini in Paris. Professional models refused to wear it; the first to do so was a nude dancer from the Casino de Paris, underscoring its association with indecency. Catholic countries such as Italy, Spain, and Portugal promptly banned the garment. The quip circulated that it revealed “everything about a girl except her mother’s maiden name.”
1954 – Fashion and the Final Warnings of Pius XII
By the mid-1950s, immodesty had entered mainstream fashion. Even Vogue magazine presented swimwear as glamorous. But Pope Pius XII was unrelenting. In July 1954, he lamented that girls blindly followed “shameless styles, like so many sheep.”
That August, he summarized the cultural stakes:
“Society reveals what it is by the clothes it wears… An unworthy, indecent mode of dress has prevailed… Vice necessarily follows upon public nudity.”
Conclusion
From 1838 to 1954, a pattern emerges: cultural corruption often begins with the corruption of modesty, especially among women, the moral anchors of society. Freemasons, revolutionaries, and fashion elites understood this truth just as clearly as popes, saints, and mystics.
As Our Lady of Fatima warned, fashions are never neutral—they can either elevate or degrade, sanctify or scandalize. The trajectory of history reminds us that modesty is not merely about clothing, but about the preservation of the soul, the family, and the very fabric of civilization.
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