A SUMMER AT THE SEA. EXTERIORITY OF THE SACRED AND SLUTTY IN SACRED PLACES

It is no coincidence that the Catholic faith has never separated the sign from the reality it signifies: it is the very logic of the Incarnation, whereby the Word became visible and tangible flesh, and the sacraments, in which an external gesture - the poured water, the broken bread, the oil spread - really communicates an interior grace.

- Actuality -

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I will try to temper the summer heat that envelops us, particularly in many of our cities, with a seemingly comical story, but tragic in the concrete facts it describes. A story that made all the editors laugh in our editorial office. Protagonist Father Ariel and four ladies over fifty, as it were: bold.

In the area of ​​Italy where he was in those August days, the heat was among the worst: the humid heat. Not being able to withstand the black color at those temperatures, he wore the white linen cassock. The parish priest of the area had entrusted him with the Holy Evening Mass on Saturday, at 18, assuring him that at that time the wedding was scheduled for 16 would have been largely concluded. In certain areas, However, educating the people of God seems to be a burden that bishops and priests do not deem appropriate to take on: like this, to overcome the chronic problem of brides' delays, it has established itself, at the level of the regional Episcopal Conference, that no weddings are celebrated on Sundays, so as not to interfere with the Sunday Eucharistic liturgies. Father Ariel arrives half an hour before the Holy Mass, about 17:30. The bride, about an hour and a half late, she had arrived only a few minutes earlier.

Entering from the back of the church, notice four women who had evidently chosen their clothing following the opposite criterion to that of common sense: wedges on their feet that looked like they came out of a comedy audition trash Of drag queen, bare shoulders, miniskirts that even a twenty-year-old would not recommend, and makeup designed for the dim light of a nightclub, not for the sun of an August afternoon. The problem wasn't age, nor the physical shape of the four women — no one has a duty to look like a model — the problem was the choice, deliberate and showy, to wear what would least help them: clothes designed to enhance harmonious shapes that are completely foreign to them. It didn't help, so, sophisticated elegance, it only took a little’ of that judgment that is normally applied when choosing what to wear to go to a funeral rather than to a nightclub: a judgment that, evidently, that day, the four women had completely deserted.

Cloaking himself in an innocent air, type beauty salon scared — while the statue of the Virgin Mary, sideways in the chapel, knowing the subject, he already looked like he was about to explode into tears, but not from pain but from laughter – Father Ariel says: "Daughters, but you don't enter the church in these conditions, come on!». One of the four responds with a candid provocative spirit: "And why, she doesn't like it?». The beauty salon scared from a vaudeville comedy it dissolves in the space of a few seconds, and the Tuscan-Roman that we all know comes out: "My dear, I have not entered a seminary a 11 year old; before I was Augustine of Hippo I was Aurelius of Tagaste, and in my life I have seen much more, but above all much better".

This tale, which made us laugh so much, I wanted to use it outside of our private sphere to introduce a topic about which there is little to laugh about: the lack of decorum inside our churches, at all times of the year, but particularly in the summer ones.

The exterior is not an empty shell

We often try to justify this drift by saying that fashions and social customs change. It's true, undoubtedly: in the 19th century women wore skirts down to their ankles and were careful not to reveal their arms beyond the elbow. But entering a church, in the sea area, with a transparent sarong over a two-piece swimsuit, it is not a change in social customs, it is simply an absence of respect for the place you enter. The same goes for a man in a sports vest and soccer shorts, just to clarify that we are certainly not just discussing women, whereas often, the men, they can do even worse.

The exterior, as some call it with barely concealed contempt, it is not at all something that is an end in itself, but a visible form of respect for the sacred - a respect that does not arise from mere formal conventions, but by the sensitivity of the faithful, or even from the respect of the non-believer who, entering to visit a monumental sacred place - which for him has nothing sacred, but it is only a place of art - it still moves with the respect due to what others believe in.

The Catholic faith, not by chance, he has never separated the sign from the reality it signifies: it is the very logic of the Incarnation, whereby the Word became visible and tangible flesh, and the sacraments, in which an external gesture - the poured water, the broken bread, the oil spread - really communicates an interior grace. And those who despise externality as irrelevant, deep down he despises, without knowing it, the same sacramental logic: as if the sign were an accessory and not a constitutive part of what it means. A dressed body, oh consciously, in a sacred place, it is not a neutral aesthetic detail: it's a sign, which communicates - whether the wearer wants it or not - either respect or indifference.

Selective hypocrisy

If you want to talk about bad taste, but above all of hypocrisy, it will be enough to remember the indelible images of when the Honorable Laura Boldrini appeared in an audience with the Supreme Pontiff Francis in trousers and flip-flop shoes, then going, a few days after, visiting the mosque in Rome with a veil on her head and a skirt down to her ankles.

No further comment is needed: the image speaks for itself, and it says everything you need to know about how much, in certain environments, formal respect is granted selectively, not on the basis of a coherent principle of respect for the sacred, but on the basis of which sacred, in that moment, it is more worthwhile to respect in the eyes of the world. Even today there are those who wonder why the then President of the Chamber was admitted in that way. To understand this you have to go back to May 1967, when the young and beautiful Claudia Cardinale, received by Paul VI in an audience granted to the artists, she showed up in a miniskirt, according to what newspapers around the world wrote inaccurately, and which even today many repeat without verifying. She was actually wearing a black suit, with a veil of lace on her head, which left the knees exposed: a knee-length skirt is very different from a miniskirt. The Supreme Pontiff welcomed her very kindly; at the same time, But, those in charge triggered those prudential safeguards which today appear almost like diplomatic archaeology, both prudence and those who should exercise it are so lacking. Does not exist, indeed, no historical photograph of the actress taken in full next to the Pontiff, but only half-length shots: was the order given to the accredited photographers, who were careful not to contravene. In the case of the Honorable Member in trousers and flip-flops, these same principles were not adopted, certainly not the fault of the Holy Father Francis, but of those who should have supervised with that courtesy and that diplomatic foresight that, evidently, in the Vatican there have been some changes in the meantime’ tarnished.

The educational performance

The problem is not correcting or educating God's people, nor demand from non-believers - often much more respectful than practicing Catholics - a minimum of respect for the sacred place. It is done as for weddings in some areas of Southern Italy: it is established that they are not celebrated on Sunday, thus avoiding the problem rather than educating to solve it. In the same way, instead of correcting, we simply pretend not to see little girls entering church with their bellies exposed, with the tight top and shorts that look much more like underwear than a garment.

There is no need for others to declare us uncredible, also in the protection and respect of the sacred: because we think very well about depriving ourselves of credibility.

Florence, 26 July 2026

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