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Okogie Releases New Dressing Code for Catholic Men

This Day (Lagos)
NEWS
August 5, 2004
Posted to the web August 5, 2004

By Andrew Ahiante
Lagos

As part of the on-going efforts aimed at sanitising the Catholic Church the
Archbishop of the Lagos Catholic Archdiocese, Anthony Cardinal Olubunmi
Okogie, has banned men with jerry curled hair, tight jeans and ear rings
from worshipping in the Church.

The Cardinal, in his current crusade against indecent dressing, in a
circular made available by his Director of Social Communications, Re-verend
Father Gabriel Osu, recently, said "fashion that promotes lust and
immorality must not be allowed inside the Church.

"They should be quietly asked to worship outside the Church", the circular
quoted the Cardinal as directing all heads of parishes across the metropolis
to strictly enforce the directive.

In another development, Okogie has condemned love offerings at Christian
wake-keeping, which, he said, was also a new phenemenon among the Catholic
faithfuls.

Though the Cardinal did not ban assistance to the bereaved, he said, such
donations, should be done privately in accordance with the Biblical
injunction of "not letting the left hand to know what the right hand was
doing.

"Love offering for the family of the deceaced is greatly frowned at. This
should not form part of the service", he said, while emphasising that
Christian wake-keeping was a good practice of the Church and could be
conducted by any good and God-fearing member of the faithful and not
necessarily a priest".

While priests could attend such wake-keeping, if they were chanced, he said
they were not bound to do so.

He also frowned at the non-redemption of pledges by some faithful, noting
that it was becoming the vogue for people to make public pledges at bazaars
and fund-raising activities without redeeming such.

He reminded those guilty of such act of avowal to desist from it, stating
that making pledges and redeeming them was very rewarding.

"To make a pledge and fulfil it soonest is an honourable thing and is highly
rewarded by God", he added.

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