Hotter than a Whore in Church

My "devotion" to the trappings of Catholic ritual are well-documented. I like the chanting, the recital, the candles, the bells, the incense, etc. Love 'em. But today I was walking down the Boulevard St. Germain on my way to go swim at a pool in the east part of the Latin Quarter. I saw a pretty church with a kind of art-deco façade (the façade was, in fact, done in 1934). It's called St. Nicolas du Chardonnet. At the entrance was a sign telling people, in French and English, that this was a holy place and no scanty clothing was allowed. It's the first time I've seen a sign like that here.
When I entered the nave, a small number of people were scattered in the rows of chairs before the altar. I wandered around, looking at paintings and statues, but everyone was surreptitiously looking at me from under their eyelashes. I thought that maybe my boots were loud on the stone, but then I noticed that all the women had their heads covered. The sign didn't say anything about covering your hair, and considering that I would look none too chic with my pink wool scarf (with knitted white roses bulging out from it) tied around my head, I finished my circumambulation. But seriously, PEOPLE WERE STARING. The stares turned into hard, disapproving looks. I left.
So I look up the church online when I get back to my apartment, and it turns out that the church is ILLEGALLY OCCUPIED by the Society of Pious X, and has been since 1977. Churches in France are owned by the state and leased to the Church by the government (a weird arrangement, but when you think of all the revolutions, it's hard to separate what belongs to whom anyway). Typically for this country, the French have ordered them to leave but decided that forcibly removing them would be too disruptive.
The SSPX, as it's known, is a Traditionalist and extremely right-wing organization that holds to Latin Mass and a bunch of crazy anachronisms. Kind of like Opus Dei. But unlike the Opus Dei, the SSPX has no standing with Rome. They were founded by Bishop Lefebvre in 1970 as a seminary, and have since had a long history of contention with the Roman Curia (except for a brief moment of cease-fire negotiated in 1988 by Cardinal Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI).
Unfortunately, also in 1988, the ageing Lefebvre ordained four priests in his order without papal permission. The Pontifical Council were understandably upset, and they rapidly excommunicated the wrongly-ordained priests.
Two weeks ago, that excommunication was lifted by the Pope. People across Europe are PISSED. The SSPX has denied the Holocaust, condemned the French Revolution as a revolt against a rightly Catholic monarchy, and praised the Vichy government (The Vichy was Unoccupied France's government during WWII. They collaborated with the Nazis to some extent, and several people were later hung as traitors.)
So here we are, in the midst of huge controversy. And I got to participate through my very own Jezebel moment, whoring it up by exposing the back of my head. In my defense, my hair is awesome.