http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/young-girl-barred-wearing-pantsuit-communion-article-1.3560368?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+NydnRss+%28Top+Stories±+NY+Daily+News%29&utm_content=Yahoo+Search+Results
I’m actually with the school on this one (surprisingly, maybe). The school/church is allowed to have rules. If you don’t like the rules, you can try to change them or find some place you like better. I think the priest didn’t have much tact if he told the father they are “doing it wrong”, but basically I agree.
How this stuff can even be newsworthy… beats me.
LOL, the virgin bride of christ option is better? Catholic male clergy wear dresses. Sometimes nice purple ones.
I agree that the church can impose whatever rules they want (seems to be what churches do well - rules 
) but I still think it is a really stupid rule.
BTW, that’s more of a suit than a pantsuit. I was expecting to see some 70’s disco thing.
School’s allowed to have rules, sure. No problem with that.
But when I see stories like this, it suddenly makes all the Catholic school closings around these parts make sense. Very few of my fellow K-8 Catholic schoolmates remain Catholic to this day.
I think the parents made the right decision and applaud them.
They can find another church that welcomes their family.
Yup, private schools and religions get to make their own policies. I’m not sure why the parents in the story were surprised given that the Catholic Church is male-chauvisnistic by doctrine.
I prefer to look at the school as separate from the parish. It might make sense as school dress code rule enforcement more generally (get in dress code or go home), but not so much as a parish rule barring a sacrament. (Some parishes allow girls to wear nice pants for a sacrament.) The school may have had a dumb rule, but the family made a choice and has to live with the consequences. It should have been settled prior to the event.
Chauvinism:
Not just Catholics. A Baptist neighbor doesn’t believe his niece is really married because a female minister performed the ceremony. His branch of Baptists doesn’t allow women ministers. Some do
have women ministers. I’ve met a couple.
The way I’m reading the article, it was settled prior to the event and the mother says it wasn’t about the pantsuit.
The child in the photos reminded me vaguely of Shiloh Jolie-Pitt.
My area had many Catholic schools close about 20 years ago. People just didn’t want to raise their kids in ‘the city’. Now the demographic has changed and it’s about as hard to get into a Catholic kindergarten as it is to get into a top college.
So I sincerely doubt it has anything to do with a communion dress. Probably the economics and family flight.
I took on the nun for first communion and I won. My daughter’s dress was sleeveless, but with a full shoulder to shoulder top (not spaghetti straps for halter) and I was told that wasn’t allowed. She’d already worn the dress in a wedding so it couldn’t be returned. I was told to buy a sweater (I tried, there just weren’t ANY available) so I made a lace bolero jacket but D didn’t like it. I was told it was a sacrament and required (by God I guess) to have sleeves. I asked if all the brides (you know, the ones with actual boobs unlike my 7 year old) had to wear dresses with sleeves. Oops, no. I won. It turned out on the day that it was unusually hot, over 90 degrees in May, and all the sweaters and wraps and jackets had to be removed or those kids would have been fainting. Lots of bare shoulders but my kid was covered more than most. And God allowed it.
On the other hand, an online friend complained that her daughter wasn’t allowed to wear her full Korean (colorful) traditional outfit for the first communion ceremony. Her daughter went to catholic school but was not catholic so was just joining her class and would receive a blessing. She wanted to be in all the pictures. I agreed with the school/church that she should conform to the ‘white dress’ rule if she wanted to take part in the event as a guest. Everyone else would be wearing white and she’s be standing out. It’s really not a fashion show.
Sigh…I don’t really think that the Jesus who administered to the sick, the poor, the unclean usually on the outskirts of towns because they were outcasts in society would mind how someone is dressed. Christianity has forgotten who Jesus was or how he ministered.
Closing thread since it’s about religion.