Deacons and Birettas

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Absolutely. I know many deacons who do. In the EF most seminarians do, as well, once they are tonsured.
 
I am puzzled by this. As evidenced by many threads on the topic of deacons and “the collar,” numerous bishops in the U.S. seem to have forbidden their deacons from wearing the collar even while in the performance of ministerial duties such as committals, wake services, and hospital visits. How does this square with deacons wearing the biretta?
 
The law of the Church, since 1983, is that secular clerics dress according to the clerical custom of the place where they are. If the cleric is regular, but his community does not have a prescribed habit, he wears whatever the secular clerics wear. The law no longer describes clerical garb for secular men. Therefore, it’s up to the bishops or the Conference of Bishops to decide. The local bishop may decide to do this own thing. The decisions of the Conference do not bind the local bishops. These are agreements, not laws.

In the USA the general agreement is that secular clerics wear a Roman collar after they are ordained to the priesthood. The cassock is not mentioned. It is up to the individual priest, if he wants to wear a cassock. Secular deacons, transitional and permanent, have different rules regarding the Roman collar, depending on the bishop of their diocese. In many dioceses, the transitional deacons wear a Roman collar, but not the permanent deacons. There is no difference between a transitional and a permanent deacon. They have received the same order. They have the same ministry. The difference is the time factor. The one will eventually be ordained to the priesthood, barring any impediments that may arise and the other will not. However, because the biretta is a hat that goes with the cassock and the cassock is rarely worn, you don’t see it often.

None of these rules applies to regular deacons. Regular deacons are bound by the constitutions of their religious communities. The constitutions determine what you wear and when you wear it.

I heard that the Council of Baltimore decided that the secular clerics in the USA would not wear cassocks off Church grounds. I don’t know if this is true. The way that it was explained to me was that it was to avoid conflicts with Protestants at a time when there was a great deal of discrimination against Catholic clergy and religious brothers.

Fraternally,

Br. JR, OSF 🙂
 
JReducation said:
The law of the Church, since 1983, is that secular clerics dress according to the clerical custom of the place where they are. If the cleric is regular, but his community does not have a prescribed habit, he wears whatever the secular clerics wear. The law no longer describes clerical garb for secular men. Therefore, it’s up to the bishops or the Conference of Bishops to decide. The local bishop may decide to do this own thing. The decisions of the Conference do not bind the local bishops. These are agreements, not laws.

In the USA the general agreement is that secular clerics wear a Roman collar after they are ordained to the priesthood. The cassock is not mentioned. It is up to the individual priest, if he wants to wear a cassock. Secular deacons, transitional and permanent, have different rules regarding the Roman collar, depending on the bishop of their diocese. In many dioceses, the transitional deacons wear a Roman collar, but not the permanent deacons. There is no difference between a transitional and a permanent deacon. They have received the same order. They have the same ministry. The difference is the time factor. The one will eventually be ordained to the priesthood, barring any impediments that may arise and the other will not. However, because the biretta is a hat that goes with the cassock and the cassock is rarely worn, you don’t see it often.

None of these rules applies to regular deacons. Regular deacons are bound by the constitutions of their religious communities. The constitutions determine what you wear and when you wear it.

I heard that the Council of Baltimore decided that the secular clerics in the USA would not wear cassocks off Church grounds. I don’t know if this is true. The way that it was explained to me was that it was to avoid conflicts with Protestants at a time when there was a great deal of discrimination against Catholic clergy and religious brothers.

Fraternally,

Br. JR, OSF 🙂
Click to expand...
Sometime ago, Fr. John Zuhlsdorf on his blog, What Does The Prayer Really Say? went over the requirements of clerical attire and the current norms in the U.S.:
wdtprs.com/blog/2010/05/quaeritur-the-obligation-of-priests-to-dress-as-priests-in-public/
 
PA650 said:
Sometime ago, Fr. John Zuhlsdorf on his blog, What Does The Prayer Really Say? went over the requirements of clerical attire and the current norms in the U.S.:
wdtprs.com/blog/2010/05/quaeritur-the-obligation-of-priests-to-dress-as-priests-in-public/
Click to expand...
Father’s blog is repeating what I said. I’m glad to know that I had the information correct. Thank You for the link.

The only thing that Father does not say, which Catholics should know, is that the Roman collar is worn by secular priests and religious brothers. It is not exclusive to priests. There are religious orders and religious congregations that have lay brothers. They avoid all distinctions between the clerics and the lay brothers. They either wear a habit or a cassock or a Roman collar. Take a look at Brother Andre. He wore a cassock.

There are other religious orders that are orders of brothers, but some or even many of the brothers are ordained brothers. These brothers are not lay in the strict sense of the word; but they are not clerics either. They are often referred to a non-clerical brothers, non-clerical friars or non-clerical monks. Or the community refers to the ordained a brother-priests or friar-priests or ordained brothers.

Whatever you callt hem, they all dress the same. They wear a common habit. When they are not in habit, they wear a Roman collar

As Father’s blog says near the end, the regular clerics are governed by their own laws. These laws are the same for religious brothers, be they lay brothers or non-clerical brothers. If the collar is the norm, that’s what they wear.

It’s also important to observe that there is no hard and fast rule for deacons. Deacons are clerics, whether they are celibate or married, transitional or permanent. But the rules that govern their manner of dress is determined the local bishops for the secular deacons and by the religious community for the regular deacons.

Father reads into the Holy Father’s statement that the cassock is the norm. I’m not reading that into the document. It’s a matter of point of view. What I’m reading into the document is that there is an appropriate manner of dress for secular priests and that it varies from one region to another. For eample, when Pope Benedict was Father Ratzinger, he wore the traditional dress for a teaching priest in Germany. He wore a black suit with a white shirt and tie.

View attachment 9881

That’s why I’m not reading the same thing as Father is about the cassock. But we agree that there is a proper dress for each region that is determined by the bishops with the approval of the Holy See. Apparently, he too heard the same thing about the Council of Baltimore. The dress of Catholic secular priests in the USA was the same as that of Anglicans. The rules of the Council of Baltimore did not apply to priests and brothers who were consecrated religious, only to diocesan priests.

Fraternally,

Br. JR, OSF 🙂
 
The priest wears a biretta processing to offer the Mass and leaving the altar where I attend Mass. It is not worn outside the church although individual priests may wear headwear of their choice but in maintaining the dignity of the cassock that they wear.
 
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