Cassock and Surplice vs Alb

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Which one would you people rather see altar boys wearing an alb of cassock and why?

In my opinion a cassock and a surplice.
 
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I’d rather see the altar boys wearing a cassock and surplice just because it looks nicer to me.
 
There are gorgeous albs. My previous parish had them, the looked very simple and sharp.
The cassocks? Don’t like them. Too fussy and likely a reason why it’s so hard to recruit altar servers. The boys just don’t like them. The girls seldom want to serve around here.

My current parish has the albs that are wrinkly, thin (cheap) and hooded. Those poor servers always look like they have slept in them.

I have a proposal on the table to invest in the better style. We’'ll see if it’s in next year’s budget.

These are the nicest and the ones that don’t look terrible on any body types:
(Please Note: This uploaded content is no longer available.)
 
We don’t allow them out of the sanctuary. They stay VERY clean.
We only dry cleaned them once every third year. The rest of the time, the Ladies Guild laundered and pressed them twice a year.
 
Some of the Altar Society routinely do the laundry. Some keep the church spotless. Others do different tasks.

No preference to Cassock and Surplice, or Alb. Tend to more focus on Mass content. I guess that reflects engineering background.
 
analtarboy said:
Which one would you people rather see altar boys wearing an alb of cassock and why?
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Cassock and surplice… if we are talking about altar boys (or male altar servers in general).

I am not a fan of girls serving the altar wearing the cassock, as it has traditionally been clerical garb. While altar boys are not always destined to the clerical state, they at least have the possibility. Not so much for females. I know one parish where female altar servers and new male altar servers all wear albs, but older male altar servers wear cassock and surplice. Some don’t like the differentiation, but that is how the priest chose to do it so that females were not in “choir dress”.
 
Funny thing is… Here in the philippines the parish doesn’t buy them… we’re the one to buy it laundry it and iron it that’s the reason its so precious that we won’t allow one stain! We call the ladies guild here MBG or mother butler guild and they only do priest’s vestments and some even argue with us because we use purificators to purify the vessels and some are just nice old grannies that love us.

By the way our cassock’s colour is white so it’s harder to laundry
 
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Interesting!
That would mean people are very careful too!
Thanks for posting this!
 
Our altar servers only wear the albs with cingulum during Mass and then the albs are taken off. Most of them look very much like the one in the picture above and are made of 100% polyester and machine washable. Slight ironing is needed and I guess we wash them about 4 times/year. The most frequent stains are from the candles when they drip and the bottom edge touching shoes when they kneel. Candle dripping is easily removed by ironing the spot having a couple of layers of kitchen towel paper both under and on top and then washing.

The parish owns them and we either buy new when we need a different size or if they are worn out. Sometimes people donate them.
 
I’ve never met a guy who disliked the C&S.

I had to recruit a few guys to serve a Mass with our local bishop for the Men’s Conference, and I brought cassocks and surplices from my church.
They had never worn them before, and they really enjoyed them, for what it’s worth.
 
Your parish is very different from mine. We are a country parish in the deep south.
 
The Nat’l basilica has boys in C&S and girls in albs.

Best of both worlds, IMO
 
Never said they were similar 🙂
Just offering my experience/ .02$
 
I have read a very interesting discussion here:
https://forum.musicasacra.com/forum/discussion/14711/where-to-buy-surplice#Item_18

A highlight:

"THE garment to have ‘in choir’ is a surplice, which, worn over a cassock is ‘choir habit’.
A surplice is a full white garment that reaches to approximate ankle length, though the faint of heart wear them at least to somewhere below calf length. This is what a surplice is. Anything shorter than this is to a surplice what our tail bone is to a tail…

Things that aren’t surplices at all, but are vestigial remnants of surplices - One of these items is the so-called cotta, which is nothing more than a chopped off surplice. Cottas generally reach anywhere from above the waist to near the nipples. Some people seem really to like putting these piteously vestigial things on very little boys. I don’t know the history of the cotta, but its history is not a very lengthy one. One finds these ridiculous looking rags on little boy altar servers at churches which apparently believe that they are more Catholic and more traditional. They aren’t. Anything above the calf, no matter how many people wear them, is not a real surplice. The so-called cotta (some of them are so short that they look like flouncy brassieres with funny little bitty sleeves) is something that shouldn’t exist, and historically didn’t. More amusing than one of these cottas on little boys is one on a grown man.

It is interesting that after the council all the ‘progressive’ parishes began to put their altar servers and acolytes in albs. This, oddly, is the historical vesture for acolytes and servers, preferably worn with an amice, preferably appareled. Ironically the ‘traditional’ parishes hung onto cassock and surplice as sanctuary vesture, thinking it more historic and traditional. It isn’t at all! Its tradition as sanctuary vesture is quite short. Cassock and surplice are choir habit, not sanctuary vesture. So, the joke is on the ‘traditionalists’. But, traditionalists and contemporaryists have one thing in common - nobody can tell them anything."
 
Eh…

A clean alb looks better than a rumpled cassock and charcoal-stained surplice.

However, a clean C&S looks better than a clean alb any day of the week.
 
If they are just boys: cassock & surplice

If mixed boys & girls: alb

Reason: I don’t think females should wear the cassock & surplice
 
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Maximilian75 said:
The Nat’l basilica has boys in C&S and girls in albs.

Best of both worlds, IMO
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I don’t necessarily have an issue with this, however, I’ve read multiple places (including usccb.org) that the servers should be uniform.

The only exception I could see is if seminarians are there too. Seminarians should wear the c&s even if child altar servers are all in albs.
 
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