Is St. Paul's teaching that women cover their heads in church based on the book of Enoch?
A viewer named Jason asks whether St. Paul's instruction that women cover their heads in church is a reference to the book of Enoch.
Answer
No. First, the book of Enoch is not canonical. It is a book from around the Old Testament period, and the only place it is drawn on is Jude, which is allowed to quote it the way Scripture elsewhere uses the book of Jasher or the book of Gad, taking a point from them without declaring them inspired. The passage on women covering their heads is 1 Corinthians 11, not Enoch. She covers her head as a sign that she is under the authority of her husband, and it is serious. We stopped taking it seriously after Annibale Bugnini made careless remarks to the press in the 1960s, and the veils came off. But the Church has never officially rescinded it: not the 1976 statement, which dealt with a different topic, and not the 1983 Code of Canon Law, which does not mention it. Canon law says that when a new code does not mention a matter that a previous canon addressed, the older provision still holds unless the new law specifically abolishes it, which it did not. So the requirement remains in force even though it is widely ignored.