Altar Servers With Clerical Collars

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Are male altar servers permitted to wear a clerical collar with their cassock even though there not seminarians?
 
Was there actually a white tab in their collar? Or was it just that the cassock had a space for it? If the first, I would say that no, they can’t do that. If it was the second, I can say that I wondered about that the first time I saw it too. Although attending a Catholic university with a seminary attached can make it difficult to figure out who is a seminarian at Mass. Especially at the beginning of the semester when new sems come in.
 
I didn’t actually witness this but I was curious as to whether it was allowed. I have read on these forums that the servers in the Vatican, who are not Seminarians, wear clerical collars.
 
FAH said:
I didn’t actually witness this but I was curious as to whether it was allowed. I have read on these forums that the servers in the Vatican, who are not Seminarians, wear clerical collars.
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You might be thinking of the Sistine Chapel Choir. However, they do not wear collars, per se. I think that they are turtle necks or dickeys.
 
tbtcom1213 said:
wdtprs.com/blog/2008/09/quaeritur-servers-using-clerical-collars/
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I can agree with Fr Z as far as his first paragraph goes. Those who serve in the Vatican are granted special privileges which do not apply to others elsewhere.

Beyond that, though, I’m not on-board with him this time. In my experience, it was never custom (in pre-conciliar times, at least) for altar boys to wear anything more than a simple cassock (sometimes red but usually black), and surplice (and in some places a sort of mozzetta, often with a bow at the neck). We were told to wear a clean white collared shirt when serving, but that’s about it. That’s what I recall. Perhaps others have had different experiences.

In any case, it seems kind of silly to me for altar boys to wear a stiff, neck-chafing collar. What would be the purpose? And even so, how would they anchor it? A collarless shirt with studs? A rabat? :rolleyes: The whole idea just doesn’t make logical sense.
 
malphono said:
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Beyond that, though, I’m not on-board with him this time. In my experience, it was never custom (in pre-conciliar times, at least) for altar boys to wear anything more than a simple cassock (sometimes red but usually black), and surplice (and in some places a sort of mozzetta, often with a bow at the neck). We were told to wear a clean white collared shirt when serving, but that’s about it. That’s what I recall. Perhaps others have had different experiences. …
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Mine too. However, we were in a country parish; so it was mandatory to check the soles of the shoes if you had been in the barnyard that morning.😃
 
We are in a very conservative/traditional dioscese and parish. The boys do not wear roman collars. They wear regular cassocks over dress shirts. It may be that a white dress shirt collar appears to be a tab through the notch in the cassock, but there isn’t a real clerical collar there.

I was obviously not an altar boy in pre Vatican II times, but from looking at pictures of the times (even movies made before 1965), I have never seen an ordinary altar boy wearing a clerical collar.
 
Given that, as documented in numerous threads here, many if not most bishops forbid the Roman Collar to deacons, it would be extraordinary if altar servers, boys or men, were to wear the collar.
 
Just an anecdote that I find amusing…

When I was in 8th grade, I was serving a funeral, and had on a white collared shirt beneath my cassock. When we were assisting with the pall and the prayers at the entrance to the Sanctuary, I noticed that one of the funeral directors kept staring at me and subtly tugging at his own collar. I finally had the presence of mind to reach up, and I discovered that part of my white collared shirt was showing through the clergy collar opening, giving the appearance that I had a clergy collar on my cassock.

I spent the rest of the Mass reaching up to make sure my shirt wasn’t poking through my collar tab!
 
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