The apparel oft proclaim the man

Some months ago there was a picture of young Legionaries of Christ walking on a beach in Kerry. It was a contrived picture – young men down on the beach in touch with nature and yet they were dressed immaculately. I live close to the Atlantic and am often at the beach, either swimming or walking. I have never ever seen people dressed in such attire on that beach or any beach.

Polished shoes are not for those beaches and any man who wears such shiny shoes on a beach has to be screaming out some message that cannot be in kilter with the world with which most of us inhabit. How come the Legionaries of Christ all dress in uniform-style clothing? They are not police or army personnel.

At the time the picture appeared the founder of the Legionaries of Christ was hitting the headlines for all he wrong reasons - allegations of child sex abuse.

What is this link between fundamentalist/hard line conservatism – maybe pseudo conservatism - and immaculate grooming? It is not just a clothes thing, there is something else about it that is simply repulsive to observe.

Shakespeare talks of how ‘the apparel oft proclaim the man’.