Black vestments today?

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FrancescaMaria

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The priest was wearing black vestments today and used black cloth to cover the chalice. It was not a funeral mass, it was a regularly scheduled weekday mass, Novus Ordo Mass, not Latin (and in the USA). It was quite beautiful, but the priest did not say anything to explain why it was all black. I thought that black is the color used for funerals and sometimes for All Souls Day. So I want to ask if there is something special about today that I missed, or if black can be used at other times besides funeral and requiem masses.
 
Could it have been a votive mass for some purpose that wasn’t explicitly clear or is your priest part of a religious order that may follow a slightly different ordo/calendar?
 
Private Requiem for an particular soul?

Requiem for Memorial Day and the surrounding day?

Votive Requiem for the month of November?
 
As far as I know, it was a regularly scheduled Mass in a regular American parish with the parish priest celebrating. The short homily was about the Gospel reading for the day, no mention of anything else. There were a few prayers for the departed souls, but nothing extra-ordinary that I noticed. The only difference is that it was all black, and I am used to seeing black at funeral masses only. Could black be used for the entire month of November as we pray for the dead? And thank you for your replies.
 
In general a mass for the dead can be offered on any weekday during ordinary time as long as it is not a solemnity or required memorial. I know that the daily readings can be changed, but don’t know that they must be changed in those instances. The only requirement I seem to remember is that the Mass must be offered for the dead.

Could they wear black all November? No. If there are required memorials for a martyr they would wear red and Sundays would follow the proper liturgical colors as Solemnities and Memorials outrank votive and masses for the dead. That being said it is very appropriate for priests to offer masses for the dead in November (assuming that is what he was doing). He also could do it outside of this month if he felt so moved.
 
FrancescaMaria said:
The priest was wearing black vestments today and used black cloth to cover the chalice. It was not a funeral mass, it was a regularly scheduled weekday mass, Novus Ordo Mass, not Latin (and in the USA). It was quite beautiful, but the priest did not say anything to explain why it was all black. I thought that black is the color used for funerals and sometimes for All Souls Day. So I want to ask if there is something special about today that I missed, or if black can be used at other times besides funeral and requiem masses.
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It could have been a Votive Mass for the Dead, as others have mentioned.
 
when i was an altar boy many years ago; i saw black vestments in the priest closet

these were used for funerals but not any more

i think white is a better choice
 
Our pastor and most of the new priests in the Diocese (I use “new” because they are not all young; there are a couple of relatively new priests who are 40 or older),wear black. Our bishop prefers violet. It’s only the older priests who wear white at funerals.

You are seeing violet and black more and more and white less and less.
 
FrancescaMaria said:
As far as I know, it was a regularly scheduled Mass in a regular American parish with the parish priest celebrating. The short homily was about the Gospel reading for the day, no mention of anything else. There were a few prayers for the departed souls, but nothing extra-ordinary that I noticed. The only difference is that it was all black, and I am used to seeing black at funeral masses only. Could black be used for the entire month of November as we pray for the dead? And thank you for your replies.
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There are some slightly different meanings to the term “Mass for the dead.” In one extreme, it can be any Mass (on any day) in which the intention of the priest is to pray in a special way for someone deceased. It can also mean a Mass in which specific prayers for the dead are used–especially a funeral Mass.

When Mass occurs on a weekday and that particular day is not strictly reserved for a particular saint or other feast day (we call those “obligatory”) the priest may choose to specifically use the prayers for that Mass from among the many choices for Masses for the Dead. He can even use only the opening Collect for the dead while using the rest of the prayers from the weekday Masses (typically the previous Sunday if it’s Ordinary Time). Even on obligatory days, Masses for the Dead are permitted, depending on the circumstances; the priest can make an exception, for example, on the 1-year anniversary of the death, or if he learns about a recent death, or some other good cause.

The entire month of November is time for us to pray, in a special way, for the souls of the departed. That might be why the priest chose to wear black on that day, even though he might have worn green in October in similar circumstances. Note that I wrote “might be.”

For most of the Church year, black can still be worn, so long as the Mass is actually a Mass for the Dead, so this isn’t limited to November.

There could be any number of specific reasons why that particular priest choose black vestments on that particular day. The only way to know would be to ask him directly.
 
Our priest wore black vestments this past Friday and announced before Mass it was because he was offering the Mass for the souls in purgatory. He also said he wanted to make it clear he was not wearing black to celebrate Black Friday:D
 
Anne1964 said:
Our priest wore black vestments this past Friday and announced before Mass it was because he was offering the Mass for the souls in purgatory. He also said he wanted to make it clear he was not wearing black to celebrate Black Friday:D
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😃

Glad to hear that priests are offering masses for the souls in Purgatory. Not to say they haven’t been in the past, but it is always heartening to hear that people are remembering the Church Penitent in their prayers.
 
PacoG said:
Our pastor and most of the new priests in the Diocese (I use “new” because they are not all young; there are a couple of relatively new priests who are 40 or older),wear black. Our bishop prefers violet. It’s only the older priests who wear white at funerals.

You are seeing violet and black more and more and white less and less.
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Great news. What color pall is used on the casket?
 
PacoG said:
Remember the pall is supposed to be symbolic of the baptismal garment.
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Why would that be? The person is passing out of the world, hopefully to Heaven or Purgatory. They have sins to atone for, most likely, and will probably spend time in penance in Purgatory - quite unlike Baptism, in which all sins and all punishment for sin is wiped away.
 
PacoG said:
White. I’ve only seen white. Remember the pall is supposed to be symbolic of the baptismal garment.
dshix;14324340:
Why would that be? The person is passing out of the world, hopefully to Heaven or Purgatory. They have sins to atone for, most likely, and will probably spend time in penance in Purgatory - quite unlike Baptism, in which all sins and all punishment for sin is wiped away.
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I think that explanation has only come since white has been allowed at funerals.

Here is a pamphlet on funerals put out by the CCCB. It emphasizes the pall as a reminder of Baptism but it also brings up the point that the pall signifies that everyone is equal before God. You can’t tell a rich man’s coffin from a poor man’s once the pall is placed. When the pall was black I suspect that would have been the main explanation for its use.
 
I checked the Extraordinary Form.

There is no mention of a pall (by that name, or any other).

Here’s an online version of the EF funeral texts:
sanctamissa.org/en/resources/books-1962/rituale-romanum/43-burial-of-adults.html
Yes, I did check the printed books (2 versions of Weller) and all the sources agree…there’s no mention of a pall of any color, or by any name.

Now, as we all know, when the E.F. was the only form, a black pall was used at funerals, at least in the Americas.

The absence of any mention of a casket pall in the EF burial rite indicates that it was not universally required. It might have been universally used (for all I know), but not required.

I will also point-out that in the E.F. the rubrics were clear that a deceased cleric was to be buried in violet vestments (we know there were exceptions, e.g. Cardinals were buried in red) because violet is the color of penance. However the casket pall was still black, the color of mourning. The point of mentioning that is we should not ascribe too much importance to the color of the pall in the EF. If it were truly important, the Church would have either required or used violet palls for clerics. Maybe cathedrals had violet palls? I don’t know, but I do know that I’ve never heard of them.

Side note: At the funeral of (now Saint) Pope John XXIII his body was vested in red and the funeral pall was likewise red. Here is a photo thinkingfaith.org/sites/default/files/20140424_1b.jpg

So while the casket pall in the Ordinary Form (approved in the 1970s by Bl. Paul VI) **is symbolic of baptism, it seems to me that there is no one explanation for the pall in the Extraordinary Form. **

My liturgical instincts tell me that there was no substantive significance to the color of the pall until Bl Paul VI revised the rite in the 1970s and associated it with the white garment of baptism. Yes, the casket pall was (and is, EF) black, but I suspect that was more coincidence because all the other cloths were black, than it was an intention to cover the deceased in black for some specific reason.

I also looked-up the etymology of the word “pall.” Despite its similarity with the word “pale” (as in white) there’s no connection. A pall may be any color. Note also that a “chalice pall” is to be the same color of the vestments. I mention this because some people have told me that a pall is white by definition—that’s not the case.
 
FrDavid96 said:
I checked the Extraordinary Form.

There is no mention of a pall (by that name, or any other).

Here’s an online version of the EF funeral texts:
sanctamissa.org/en/resources/books-1962/rituale-romanum/43-burial-of-adults.html
Yes, I did check the printed books (2 versions of Weller) and all the sources agree…there’s no mention of a pall of any color, or by any name.

Now, as we all know, when the E.F. was the only form, a black pall was used at funerals, at least in the Americas.

The absence of any mention of a casket pall in the EF burial rite indicates that it was not universally required. It might have been universally used (for all I know), but not required.

I will also point-out that in the E.F. the rubrics were clear that a deceased cleric was to be buried in violet vestments (we know there were exceptions, e.g. Cardinals were buried in red) because violet is the color of penance. However the casket pall was still black, the color of mourning. The point of mentioning that is we should not ascribe too much importance to the color of the pall in the EF. If it were truly important, the Church would have either required or used violet palls for clerics. Maybe cathedrals had violet palls? I don’t know, but I do know that I’ve never heard of them.

Side note: At the funeral of (now Saint) Pope John XXIII his body was vested in red and the funeral pall was likewise red. Here is a photo thinkingfaith.org/sites/default/files/20140424_1b.jpg

So while the casket pall in the Ordinary Form (approved in the 1970s by Bl. Paul VI) **is symbolic of baptism, it seems to me that there is no one explanation for the pall in the Extraordinary Form. **

My liturgical instincts tell me that there was no substantive significance to the color of the pall until Bl Paul VI revised the rite in the 1970s and associated it with the white garment of baptism. Yes, the casket pall was (and is, EF) black, but I suspect that was more coincidence because all the other cloths were black, than it was an intention to cover the deceased in black for some specific reason.

I also looked-up the etymology of the word “pall.” Despite its similarity with the word “pale” (as in white) there’s no connection. A pall may be any color. Note also that a “chalice pall” is to be the same color of the vestments. I mention this because some people have told me that a pall is white by definition—that’s not the case.
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This article from the Catholic Encyclopedia adds a bit of information.
newadvent.org/cathen/06322a.htm
 
Phemie said:
This article from the Catholic Encyclopedia adds a bit of information.
newadvent.org/cathen/06322a.htm
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Rather odd article.

The Ritual of 1962 forbids clerics to act as pallbearers for a layman, whereas the Encyclopedia (about 50 years older) says that it’s forbidden for clergy to be pallbearers for clergy (which might actually be a mistake in the Encyclopedia, since I know its customary for clergy to carry clergy caskets). It’s odd.

I also don’t see the connection the Encyclopedia is making. The pallbearers don’t literally carry the pall, instead they carry the casket.

The 1962 Ritual doesn’t mention a pall for the Exequies when the body is not present. It mentions a catafalque, but still no pall. Again, note the different years: 1909 Encyclopedia, 1962 ritual. I don’t have any funeral books from 1909 (maybe there’s a digital version somewhere?)
 
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