What Does The Prayer Really Say?
W D T P R S

There is a good and thoughtful post over at The Recovering Dissident Catholic about attire in church. 

Some background.  There is an especially irksome group called the Rainbow Sash Movement who put on sashes to protest the Church’s teaching on acting on homosexual inclinations and thus committing homosexual actions.  Since they are in turn commiting a scandalous act in public, they may not receive Holy Communion and priests ought not give it to them.  This has even been the subject of a letter from the Prefect for the Congregation for Divine Worship and Discipline of the Sacraments.  Certain dioceses are targeted by this group every year on Pentecost when they show up at the cathedral in their garb of protest.   For a while they claimed they were acting in good faith.  However, even this year on their website they are saying  (my emphases):

We need to be present in the Cathedral … to remind both bishops that our glbt sexuality is a gift from God, which we proudly celebrate on Pentecost.  ... Organizers will provide the Rainbow Sash to everyone who agrees to wear it throughout the Mass, and not remove it if so requested by the presider during the Mass.   If denied communion, as we were last Pentecost, we will peacefully and prayerfully return to our pews and remain standing while the rest of the congregation kneels.  All who share our belief in a loving God who celebrates with us the diversity of Her creation are welcome.

You see their attitude.  They must be denied Holy Communion as a result of their publicly proclaimed intention to disrupt Mass from a motivation of dissent from the teachings of the Church and the obvious conclusions from natural law.  It is hard sometimes to understand how people can get so confused.

So, the entry from Recovering Dissident is applicable everywhere but especially timely for Americans.  (My emphases.)

Gang Colors at Holy Mass

It used to be that the only person in the Church during Holy Mass who gave serious thought to what color they had on was the Priest. The Priest still does but now he is joined in color by some of his parishioners.

Pentecost is next Sunday and you will be hardpressed to find a similar day in the Liturgical Year where gang colors will be on parade.

You will more then likely have the rainbow group representing those misguided Catholics who think GLBT individuals are oppressed in the Church because they can’t practice their sexuality the way THEY want to without the "big bad" Church objecting. This gang uses Pentecost as a day to be really disruptive and wear rainbow colored sashes and pins and stand around like a group of pouting children when they are told they can’t receive Communion dressed like that because they just made a public statement by their attire that they are not in Communion with the Church.

You will have the purple sash or headscarf group. Folks who think women are wronged by the Church because they can’t be ordained. Rather then just wear a ladylike mantilla or go someplace else, they will show up and sit right up front. They growl and stamp their feet when they are told they can’t receive Communion because they are so obviously making a statement that they disagree with the Church’s teachings as handed down by Jesus Christ.

...

Back in my clubbing days, people with certain colors on that signified alliance with a gang and the potential for possible disruption or violence were not allowed in to the club.

Do we need bouncers at the doors of our Churches? Why do folks think that the Mass is about them?

We can barely get people to dress respectfully for Mass, but tell them they can look ridiculous to make a political statement and change the focus of Holy Mass to their selfish selves they are all for it.

This year in the United States, Pentecost Sunday is in the middle of, what is for many, a 3-day holiday weekend for Memorial Day on Monday. This means, a lot of people will be traveling. It usually means that people tend to show up for Mass this Sunday dressed in their summer worst.

Here’s my modest proposal: Please make an effort to dress up this Sunday if you normally don’t. Ties, suits, dresses, skirts, blouses. Dress modestly and appropriately. Let’s try and counter what has become the annual ritual of idiocy with reverence and taste.