Short skirts?

It has been brought to my notice that in Kerala, a bishop, exhorting his faithful to a spiritual life, through his pastoral newsletter recommended (among others) that girls should not wear short dresses to Church.  While certainly he has the good of his people and their spiritual growth at heart, he is perhaps focussing on some non-essentials.

That youngsters come to Church is itself a great sign of the growing faith.  To state that one should be dressed neatly and look dignified is one thing.  But the length of one's dress need not always be the standard measurement of one's character or spirituality.

While I do agree that many of the traditional practices have been a great help in building the Church and spreading the faith, I also believe that they need not be practiced merely because 'it has been so'. Rather those practices need to be explained in terms of contemporary context and made meaningful for today.

Moreover, would like to really know, whose problem is it if girls come with short skirts?  Of the girls themselves? Of boys? Of elders? Or of the parish priest himself?  I'm sure it is not of the girls themselves.  Well then, whose-so-ever else is the problem, they need to ask themselves what exactly is their problem?  The newsletter would do good to balance its statement on skirts with this issue too.