The pope on nakedness and modesty

Just in time for a follow-up to my last post, I ran across this quote from the Pope on the subject of nakedness, half-nakedness, and modesty. I generally have little interest in what the Pontiff says (I'm neither a Catholic or a believer in most religion), but for once he makes a sensible point:

"Sexual modesty cannot then in any simple way be identified with the use of clothing, nor shamelessness with the absence of clothing and total or partial nakedness. There are circumstances in which total nakedness is not immodest... nakedness as such is not to be equated with physical shamelessness. Immodesty is only present when nakedness plays a negative role with regard to the value of the person... The human body is not in itself shameful, nor for the same reasons are sensual reactions, and human sensuality in general. Shamelessness (just like shame and modesty) is a function of the interior of the individual." - Pope John Paul II (*) (*) Wojtyla, Karol (Pope John Paul II) (August 1994) Love and Responsibility Ignatius Press (ISBN 0-89870-4456)

This was posted in the Beeper (body pride ride) Yahoo group, an organization that raises body issue awareness through its public naked bike rides.