Bishops have never had diamond rings in my experience but the move is toward simplicity rather than rubies or garnets. In fact Cardinal Burke has got a Galero and has worn it. You can google that image. I haven’t seen a Cappa Magna since 1965 apart from on Cardinal Burke. I think to me it speaks of a pre Vatican II monarchical episcopate and I imagine that the imagery evokes that feeling in others too. It’s less fashon police and more a sensitivity to imagery
Well I could just as easily say that design-less polyester chasubles 2 sizes too big evoke the feeling of cold corporate North American consumerism in me—"$49.99 for a chasuble what a deal!"—and it chills my blood.
If I see such a thing it grates my aesthete eyes for a minute but then I shove it out of my head.
My point is that for every complaint of ideology represented by a certain level of decoration of vestments that people can make, I can make an equally negative complaint of ideology represented by the opposite level of decoration.
If, traditionally throughout history, monarchs have preferred an aesthetic that is dripping with symbols and overloaded with shiny glitz, then traditionally since they have existed, modernists have preferred an aesthetic completely devoid of symbol and regularity of form. The issue is that monarchs are not necessarily bad while modernism is always necessarily bad… wait, no, I’m not saying what you think I’m saying.
But like I said none of this really matters, Cardinal Burke is not an evil boogeyman (srsly ppl?), Pope Francis is not a modernist, etc.
I think the same goes for the church or chapel where the Mass is said. I think some of the most beautiful ones I’ve been in have been the fairly simple ones. I don’t like having a bunch of images on the walls that have me looking every which way. I like the kind where the altar, tabernacle, and crucifix are the focal point.
But I digress.
Maybe that’s an issue of being able to focus. Visual stuff does not distract me. There can be 50 paintings in a church and none of it distracts me, none of it in my brain takes away from the centrality of the altar, tabernacle and crucifix. For the record I am not an aesthetic ideologue: I don’t think a church has to have a certain number of decorations or has to be decorated in a certain style to look good. For me the question ultimately is usually about taste: is the building in good taste or is it vulgar, either because of too much or too little decoration, or do the design elements just really not work together?
Then again there is something that distracts me: badly performed music, yuck.
Not aware of any instruction that says, “You can’t wear a ring of quality over 14 karat, nor can it have a diamond in it.”