Cassocks

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Our (youngish) pastor wears a cassock! It’s great. Our Parochial vicar also wears a cassock, but that’s because he belongs to an order “Apostles of Jesus”. He’s from Uganda.

Peace,
Linda
 
In my conservative NO parish our Monsignor always wears a cassock and so do any visiting priests we have.
 
If you want your priest to wear a cassock, you should get him one. Or a gift certificate for one, anyway. They’re not cheap; also, they require a bit of tailoring to look good. If, however, they are given one, they will be more likely to wear one.
 
KarrollKid04 said:
I was reading another thread in this forum on the Biretta (forums.catholic-questions.org/showthread.php?t=133768), which led me to another question: why do the great majority of priests no longer wear cassocks? To each his own, but I would love to see more priests wearing the traditional clerical garb.
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Most TLM Priests wear the traditional cassock.

Some NO Priests wear the traditional cassock…a larger number wear the Roman Collar with a black clerical shirt which is nice looking too. (Very professional hehe)

Then there are the priests who dont deserve TLM or NO as a title…
 
Mintaka said:
If you want your priest to wear a cassock, you should get him one. Or a gift certificate for one, anyway. They’re not cheap; also, they require a bit of tailoring to look good. If, however, they are given one, they will be more likely to wear one.
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That is a great idea!

Where is a good place to get a gift certificate for a tailored cassock? Maybe the Bible study group at my parish can do this for our visiting priest.

God Bless
Scylla
 
That tailor seems to sell mostly Orthodox vestments, and no Latin style cassocks, as far as I could see- any suggestions of Catholic tailors?
 
Our parochial vicar wears a cassock, I and my pastor have ordered one for stations of the cross during Lent. I can’t wait until mine come in!
 
Some men may just not feel comfortable with the wind blowing freely under their cassock now days. It can lift up and show the legs in high winds when they are wearing the summer-weight materials.

Our parish has been about 1/2 and 1/2 on priests who like the cassock and wear it alternating with other things and priests who I’ve never seen wear it. One of our priests who liked it became a priest later in life and one who never wears it did the same, so I don’t think it matters when someone was ordained. I’m guessing it is a personal preference thing.
 
Some priests I have known would like to wear the cassock, but are intimidated by (sometimes) the older priests (especially a pastor) who sees the cassock as a throwback to a time of clericalism. I love the cassock and I think that you will start seeing it more often.
 
AngelicDoctor said:
Some priests I have known would like to wear the cassock, but are intimidated by (sometimes) the older priests (especially a pastor) who sees the cassock as a throwback to a time of clericalism. I love the cassock and I think that you will start seeing it more often.
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I have seen that at my parish. We have a retired priest living there who dislikes how the parochial vicar wears one. He sees it as behind the times…
 
Priests (and seminarians!) in cassocks are a wonderful statement of the faith. It is a way of preaching without speaking- as St. Francis taught. If someone is out and about and sees a holy, kind priest in a cassock, maybe they will be inspired to practice their faith more, or inquire about the Catholic faith. Maybe they will be inspired to pray for priests. Maybe they will just be reminded that there are still Catholics in the world who are passionate about their faith.
 
When did the cassock go out of style? recently I was looking at old photos (1920s-1940s) of New England parishes and none of the priests wore cassocks. It seemed they all had black pants, plack shirt, and black sport coat and almost all had the white collar that went around the entire neck, rather than the little white square in the front. (almost all of the priests were Irish if they helps discerning the reasons for their style of dress).
 
Genesis315 said:
When did the cassock go out of style? recently I was looking at old photos (1920s-1940s) of New England parishes and none of the priests wore cassocks. It seemed they all had black pants, plack shirt, and black sport coat and almost all had the white collar that went around the entire neck, rather than the little white square in the front. (almost all of the priests were Irish if they helps discerning the reasons for their style of dress).
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Do you have any links to websites for those photos?
 
One other thing: I have heard some priests do not wear cassocks because they think the lay people (not use to seeing them for decades) will think that they look ridiculous, eccentric, or clerical. (I even heard of one parishoner saying “nice dress, Fatha’”). Here is what I have found. The more parishoners see the cassock, the more normal it seems to them (like anything else). At first they might think–what is that? And a priest might be a little self-conscious about wearing it. But then, after people see it several times (and by different priests) it starts to look like just another item of ecclesiastical garb. I was recently a seminarian who used to wear my cassock on Sundays at the parish I interned at, and that is what I found (many people liked the cassock). I mean, heck, the priest’s albs look like dresses too! I like the cassock because it feels like a religious habit… and has that sign quality.
 
A priest I know recently explained why he only wears his cassock when specifically on church business. He said he can’t go to the movies, buy groceries, go out to eat, or any other average thing people do without others becoming so interested in what he is doing that it keeps him from doing it. He said people will walk up to his shopping cart and start pawing through it to see what he has, making comments on a nicer cut of meat or name-brand canned veggies, telling him he doesn’t need this or that, even becoming scandalized that he has a bottle of wine. Protestants will ask him to hear their confessions. Accusations are made of child abuse when he holds his nephews in his lap when out on a family dinner, ruining the evening for all involved and subjecting the children to such depravity. He said it becomes almost impossible to navigate regular life when wearing a cassock in his part of the country.

I know others who are spat upon, even assaulted, for showing their faith.

I have a personal opinion on what I would do in such circumstances, but seeing as I am not the one in the cassock, I refrain from passing judgment on the man who is.

We need many more examples of holy men and women in our daily lives.
 
jc-servant said:
Some men may just not feel comfortable with the wind blowing freely under their cassock now days. It can lift up and show the legs in high winds when they are wearing the summer-weight materials.

Our parish has been about 1/2 and 1/2 on priests who like the cassock and wear it alternating with other things and priests who I’ve never seen wear it. One of our priests who liked it became a priest later in life and one who never wears it did the same, so I don’t think it matters when someone was ordained. I’m guessing it is a personal preference thing.
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The wind blowing under their cassocks? Maybe in Texas, but up here you wear pants under your cassock.
 
Genesis315 said:
When did the cassock go out of style?
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Also, when did the cassock for clerics as we know it come into style?

The cassock style we are familiar with seems to resemble the zupan, which was a miltary tunic from Renaissance times (at least). But I know very little about the history of the religious/scholastic cassock that we know.

Michael
 
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