How long?
On 4 February 1999, the Assembly of Catholic Patriarchs in Lebanon issued a decision binding on all their Churches about the need to respect the sanctity of churches: no chatter, no revealing clothing and no worldly display overshadowing religious celebrations, nor anything else that contradicts the holiness of the place and disfigures the image of God’s children.
Regardless of how strictly their priests follow these rules to the letter, the principle is blessed and deserves praise, and we hope it will be carefully followed up.
I have long hoped that our own synod would adopt what is needed on this matter, to put an end to everything that disfigures the holiness of our Church and violates the sanctity of our places of worship.
We have come to boast of our rites, our chant and our Byzantine splendour, while neglecting the care of souls and leading them on the paths of salvation.
The matter needs a firm synodal decision from our Church, monitored, with its implementation followed up and priests who fail to apply it disciplined:
1. The priest must guide the bride and groom on the need to keep reverence during the crowning, with a modest wedding dress that does not expose the chest, and warn them
that the crowning will not take place if the bride breaks this condition.
Marriage preparation centres must also remind couples of this regarding the ceremony.
And priests must remind the faithful, especially women and girls, to wear modest clothing in church.
2. Teach the faithful to reject all pagan customs and traditions foreign to our Christian roots, for example banning the hiring of a zajal poet and the holding of wailing ceremonies over the dead, and replacing them with our Christian customs: hymns and the reading of the Gospel and the Epistles beside the body, which should be placed in the church and not in the church hall.
Our church must not become a fashion show hall.
We must bring the Church into the world, and not let the world into the Church. Our work is to Christianize the world, not to secularize Christ.
(I once told a bride-to-be in our parish, “You need to choose a modest dress that doesn’t expose your chest.” She then chose to get married in another parish, with a very low neckline.) That is why I ask for a synodal decision binding on priests.
With my love,
Father Boutros El Zein
