Pure Fashion is the latest recruiting endeavor launched by Regnum Christi. Fashion shows are being held in several different cities prompting Regain contributors to write in about the ads for Pure Fashion
that have been posted during Holy Week — no doubt to reach the large number of Easter attendees at church. (See the second commentary, Bad Taste in Your Face!
below) Further, Regain has learned that several middle aged women, who (until recently) were leaders in Regnum Christi, have been replaced by younger, more attractive women to be the public face of the Movement.
Pure Fashion purports to teach young women how to dress modestly and so to be pretty for God.
In reality what happens is that the best-looking and most privileged girls are asked to model clothing in a glamorous setting while their less-than-gorgeous friends squeal and scream in appreciation (on command by their team leaders, of course) to draw attention to the event. With attention comes more possible recruits (and money) to Regnum Christi.
But the ReGAIN contributors to this editorial (many Catholic mothers) ask all visitors to this website to stop and think clearly about Pure Fashion’s consequences for a minute
Why are we displaying our pretty, young innocent Catholic girls on a catwalk
in a shopping mall or an elite park? The mall is a common hangout for perverts wanting to prey on children. What a perfect opportunity for each young girl to be checked out
and her name and affiliation revealed far and wide. Imagine the microphone: Next we have Colleen from St. Thomas More Church in Plano…
Why are we displaying our daughters in ways that encourage vanity and undue attention to the externals. What about the feelings of the less glamorous girls who feel left out and rejected because they have acne or a non-model figure? Parents with less developed and less-than-gorgeous daughters know that many tears will be shed and real anguish of rejection experienced by their youngsters at not being invited to participate as a model or to go on other YTM outings to important
destinations, like Rome.
Why should young Catholic girls not be encouraged to imitate St. Clare and witness to Christ by living their Faith? If they walk around modestly, doesn’t that speak volumes?
The following commentary comes from Dallas, where Pure Fashion is holding a show at the Dallas Arboretum on April 28. For just $55.00 per ticket (and the cost of a $10.00 parking fee) a good time can be had by all…that is, if the adults who are paying the entrance fee are so brainless that they buy the line that the purpose of this latest recruiting ploy of Regnum Christi is purity.
It’s bad enough that the Legion of Christ and Regnum Christi wreck lives of adult men and women, but when they start to shred the hopes and hearts of young girls and boys, it is pure pandering as well as being pure predator activity under any other name, even Pure Fashion.
An Open Letter from a Former Legionary to Fellow Parishoners on Pure Fashion.
in Dallas:
If you are considering attending this fashion show
– please don’t!!!
The promoter of this event is Regnum Christi
which is an apostolate of the Legionaries of Christ. Pure Fashion.
in turn, is an apostolate of Regnum Christi which serves to raise money and recruit members into RC and children into ECYD
or Challenge
or Conquest
– the RC youth clubs, designed to feed recruits and money into the adult RC and Legionaries of Christ.
Based on my experiences in the Legion for five years — and the experiences of many others — I consider them to be a very harmful group, even a cancer
within the Catholic Church.
It’s quite understandable that people are fooled by the appearances, the advertising, and the websites of the Legion and Regnum Christi. The Legion and RC and their programs are designed to fool people, as I was fooled for 5 years, and most people don’t get it
unless they experience the serious problems. Even Pope John Paul II was fooled by them, but Pope Benedict XVI seems to be catching on. He told their founder, Fr. Marcial Maciel, who has very credibly been accused of abusing a large number of former seminarians, to retire from public ministry and to live a life of prayer and penance. A trial was not held because of Maciel’s age and health, but the punishment is clear.
Every activity of Regnum Christi/LC has a primary purpose:
recruit new members and raise money. In this case it is young girls and their families using the bait
of being shown what appears to be a good way to live an aspect of our Catholic faith.
Many dioceses refuse to allow LC/RC to function there. Archbishop Harry Flynn of Minneapolis (an initial supporter), in his letter banning them, charged them with building a parallel church
which separates persons from the local parishes and archdiocese, and creates competing structures.
I implore you not to attend, nor to support this group in any way, for your own good as well as your children, and that of the Church. For more information, take a look at:
http://www.life-after-rc.com and
http://www.regainnetwork.org
Bad Taste, in Your Face!
Another Commentary on Pure Fashion
on Holy Thursday
As you approach the front door of a local Church tonight, on your way to Holy Thursday Mass, if you looked to your right, you would have seen the enormous ad for PURE FASHION, featuring various young models, including one dressed like Miss America in a sparkling party gown and diamond tiara, as well as various other trendily dressed young girls, modeling as well…this is adorning the church bulletin board, encased in glass…just like a Broadway Marquis!!!!!
DURING HOLY WEEK?????!!!!!!!
Forget about the fact that we are in the Holiest time of the year right now…..
BUT, we might say, our Precious Lord needs to be Purely Revered!!!!!…. but no, we get pure fashion thrown at us instead..
We are in Holy Week for goodness sake. the FOCUS is completely off the one who MATTERS MOST!!!!!!
Do people who attend and want this travesty have brains anymore?
Do priests who permit this Brittany-wanna-be event to be advertised in their churches have brains anymore?
WE ARE IN HOLY WEEK!!!
PURE FASHION??????????
What does that have to do with the pure PASSION of Christ?
Aw, gee, I am just overreacting again.
Editorial Conclusion:
The advertisement for Pure Fashion has a model wearing a crown, a tiara, like Miss America. What a rival, what a parallel church event is set up in place of those two occasions when girls and women might appropriately wear crowns in church:
The precious little girls who are receiving their first Holy Communion look like the little brides of Christ, which they are.
A bride coming to her husband in the SACRAMENT of marriage might wear a crown, or tiara as well as a veil, for here is a living symbol of the sacred mystery of self-giving and the gift of life through union in Christ.
This is because these two events, sacraments that they are, show us that women’s vocation is revealed in its highest calling by the glorious Queen of Heaven, Mother Mary, and as we become one in the Redemptive Mystery with Our Blessed Lord so we become one with her — the ONLY woman who can rightly bear the Crown of Heaven and Earth.
We are truly called to something so much greater than vanity, vanity, vanity.
Pure Fashion is a pitiful substitute. It is pure pandering at the expense of our children’s souls.