Does hierarchy in church make a person proud?

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Isn’t it sinful to feel self pride? For example, a bishop might feel proud that he has higher rank than priest and a priest feels more proud that he is higher than a laity. Also, wont all the different dresses designs inflate their self pride as they feel they are more ‘special’ than others? Do you think everybody should wear normal dresses instead of cassocks, mitre, etc? Isnt this what sedduces did?
 
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On the contrary, wearing the cassock tends to make me carry myself more virtuously, knowing people are always watching me. There’s nothing inherent to leadership or uniforming that makes people prideful. Pride is a vice. It’s not a side effect of status or clothing. You can be a humble bishop in full regalia, and you can be a proud layman wearing sackcloth.

-Fr ACEGC
 
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The higher the rank the more people you must serve. In the Church we all serve God with humility knowing as we do our humble and lowly status very clearly.

We also give respect to our servants without whom we should not be served and be left wanting.
 
I’m from the southern United States, so, please forgive me for not so much what I am going to say, but how I am going to say it.
Amen! Preach it!
 
I believe, if I recall correctly, one of the pope’s titles is the “servant of the servants of God”.
 
I feel that if i want to be really humbled then i must wear a humble dress. Let me wear the ugliest dress. I dont want to showoff or make others think that i am showing off. This is only IMO.
 
I wear the same black cassock every day. With black buttons and sometimes a black sash. I don’t really get to express my individuality with my fashion. I rather cloak myself. Just as we are called to clothe ourselves in Christ. It is Christ who acts through me in my ministry. It’s easier to remember that when I dress so simply. And I don’t have to spend a lot of time or energy on what I will wear. I simply submit to what the Church asks of me.
 
Each to his own, if that makes you happy.

When I first became a Catholic I wore the most basic wooden cross I could buy and hung it around my neck using garden twine. It soon drove me nuts. I opted for a smaller one also wooden, the type of which you may find on an old rosary, and one which I found near a Catholic Church thirty five years ago. Always kept it in my pocket prior to becoming a Catholic without a chain especially on days when I thought I’d be challenged in some way.
 
It is also one of the things that makes it harder to live in holiness.
 
IMHO, yes.

Not to be a party pooper, but after the sexual abuse crises, and court cases the hierarchy enabled the sinfulness to spread. Hierarchy breeds pride, which also breeds secrecy.

Like, why does an archbishop need a $1.65mil house?

Oh wait, he doesn’t! Jesus slept in people’s houses who hosted him during his public ministry!
 
My bishop, who is also a cardinal, is happy that he can continue wearing his Carmelite habit as bishop and cardinal.
 
What people don’t often realize is that when someone is given a position of authority, it is for the benefit of those not under him, and not for himself. The higher up you are in a hierarchy, the more you must die to yourself.
 
edward_george1 said:
There’s nothing inherent to leadership or uniforming that makes people prideful.
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I have to disagree with that statement about leadership, but not necessarily about wearing a simple uniform that generally resembles contemporary attire. I think the notion of the OP has merit, and is for all intents and purposes not merely a vice based in the individual. If someone would like to speak in absolutes about this, then I think you have a point that virtues and vices are not necessarily inherent to any role. But I think the OP’s intent is not to speak in absolutes, but is instead speaking of human beings who are subject to concupiscence in a real world environment.

I think leadership roles have the inherent pitfall of pride built into them. Some people are attracted to leadership roles for no other reason than to attain status and admiration. There is a reason that people who crave those things seek them in leadership roles.

Simple uniforms are one thing, but I suspect the OP is referring to regalia, or such things that appear to be unnecessary regalia, such as cassocks, mitres, and tiaras. Having leadership put on flamboyant attire is an invitation for pride to attack the leadership, and an invitation for envy to attack the weak.

A few of the more recent popes felt the need to do away with unnecessary regalia and ceremony…the papal tiara and coronation, for example. Pope Francis takes those initiatives to heart by attacking clericalism within the Church.

I can tell you from experience that pride and ladder climbing are inherent pitfalls to leadership roles, or conversely, inherent perks to leadership roles, depending on the vice or virtue of the individual who takes such a role.
 
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There is also a hierarchy in Heaven, yet there is no sinful pride.
Pride comes from the heart. A person can be humble no matter what he is wearing. The dress helps them be conscious of their role and mission.
 
Hierarchy in any organization can lead to the sin of pride - it’s called being too big for your britches!
 
It depends on how the bishop uses his house. If he houses the homeless, maybe group of religious brothers, some seminarians, or some other similar purpose then I would not mind it being such a house.
 
I think the higher status comes with so much responsibility that I’d be surprised if they had time to wallow in pride.
 
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