How do you want YOUR parish priest to dress?

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I get to wear my cassock for official diocesan events (namely ones in which we have some sort of liturgy, i.e. Mass) and I plan on wearing a cassock all the time. I’ll have some clerical shirts for when my cassock is at the dry cleaners or for certain other things in which it would be appropriate.

As a practical note, cassocks can actually be more comfortable-you can wear almost anything you want underneath it depending on the situation.
 
lepanto said:
Here’s a catalog with prices.

chiarellis.com/Merchant/merchant.mv?Screen=CTGY&Store_Code=CRG&Category_Code=CASS
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Thanks for the link lepanto. I wonder one is called “semi-Jesuit”. I understand the Jesuits wore a slightly different cassock but why leave it at “semi-Jesuit” and not go for the whole thing?

ComradeAndrei, I have no doubt to the comfort of the cassock. I just plain seems comfortable! I’ve never heard a priest complain about the lack of comfort in a cassock.
 
Aureole said:
I understand the Jesuits wore a slightly different cassock but why leave it at “semi-Jesuit” and not go for the whole thing?
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Because many Jesuits are semi-Catholic?? :rotfl:

Sorry…couldn’t resist. :tiphat:
 
jmcrae said:
Both of our priests always look so sharp in their neatly pressed, clean black shirt, black suit jacket, black pants, shiny black shoes, and Roman collar. 🙂

They also both have dark skin colouring, dark eyes, and dark hair, neatly cut short - they are very good-looking, and take the proper care in their dress and grooming. 👍
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Cause it’s important that priests look sharp and well groomed… like Christ.
:confused:
 
ComradeAndrei said:
As a practical note, cassocks can actually be more comfortable-you can wear almost anything you want underneath it depending on the situation.
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Although it’s quite true that one can wear many things underneath a cassock, traditionally no one would have done this. I suppose some sort of undergarment may have been used, but I also think of kilts and know that’s not really necessary. The cassock is the garment. Things only developed to where we’ve come to think clerics should be wearing an outfit underneath their cassocks.
 
'Cause what’s most important, of course, is that priests, while pouring out their lives in the service of others, seeking to be humble and selfsacrificial, should strive to look “sharp” and “shiny” with “neat hair” and a “well groomed” appearance … like Christ, I guess, huh. Or like Francis of Assissi, or Mother Theresa, or Maximillian Kolbe, or Damien of Molokai.
:confused:

A priest’s life ideally, will be such what he’s wearing will be the last thing people notice, after they’ve noticed the way he treats people, the way he serves and loves.

I’ve known scruffy priests in plain clothes who looked like hobos but loved like saints and I’ve known wellgroomed, shiny, whitecollared priests who seem like they got ordained just so they could play dressups - and I’ve known priests like the majority, those guys who manage to live their call like the rest of us whatever they wear.

Threads like this make me chuckle - I guess there’s a place for them… but they make me shake my head sometimes.
 
Some of the funniest Jesuit jokes I have heard were from Jesuits themselves.

In this day and age, one had better be wearing something under their cassock. Even if they live in Scotland. It is not a kilt, and kilt rules do not apply. By all means, at least wear pants!

I did not make up the Velcro cassock closure. They do exist. The legend about the little hooks is mine, but is not really a bad symbol. The fuzzy part can represent the arms of the Lord reaching out time and again to forgive and save. Or fuzzy Jesuit theology (sorry, I couldn’t resist either!).
 
The priests wear their cassocks and by golly they look good…the cassock is kind to the tubby and the lean…you know who they are at a glance and they make you proud to be Catholic…

…ever seen the young ones and seminarians play soccer in the cassocks…now there is a sight!
 
Although it’s quite true that one can wear many things underneath a cassock, traditionally no one would have done this. I suppose some sort of undergarment may have been used, but I also think of kilts and know that’s not really necessary. The cassock is the garment. Things only developed to where we’ve come to think clerics should be wearing an outfit underneath their cassocks.
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True, the cassock is the garment, there is no “need” for black pants to be worn underneath it. That was my point though-people think you “need” to wear black dress pants underneath it (along with some sort of dress shirt) and then conclude that it would to horribly hot to wear the “cassock” (and pants and shirt) during summer, and that’s where they’re wrong.
'Cause what’s most important, of course, is that priests, while pouring out their lives in the service of others, seeking to be humble and selfsacrificial, should strive to look “sharp” and “shiny” with “neat hair” and a “well groomed” appearance … like Christ, I guess, huh. Or like Francis of Assissi, or Mother Theresa, or Maximillian Kolbe, or Damien of Molokai.
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And all of those people wore their habit/clerics when it was possible.👍 In seminary we are taught to be well groomed, clean and neat in appearance because such an appearance shows that you have a degree of self-respect and maturity. I don’t buy into that ideology that “dressing like ‘the people’” is beneficial to any real degree.

I think that it is pompous and self-righteous to condemn a priest wearing a cassock as vain and worldy. Just because he’s wearing a cassock and looking very presentable doesn’t mean that he’s a jet-set priest w/ a few closets full of Gammareli cassocks and platinum cuff links:rolleyes:. This reminds me of those conversations we have about the Pope dressing too richly. Catholics aren’t tasteless puritans.

The clothes don’t necessarily make the man, but dressing properly (i.e. meeting the requirements and doing so neatly) should be done. You will generally edify many more people by dressing respectably in your clerics than you will by wearing “civies” or trying to play “street priest” w/ faded clerics and dirty collars.
 
I would go with pants and a roman collar at least whenever the priest is ministering outside of liturgy, except when it would be silly or dangerous to do so.
If he wants to wear his collar in his private time, good for him but no obligation.
If he wants to wear a cassock, good for him but no obligation.
 
Cavaille-Coll said:
Some of the funniest Jesuit jokes I have heard were from Jesuits themselves.

In this day and age, one had better be wearing something under their cassock. Even if they live in Scotland. It is not a kilt, and kilt rules do not apply. By all means, at least wear pants!

I did not make up the Velcro cassock closure. They do exist. The legend about the little hooks is mine, but is not really a bad symbol. The fuzzy part can represent the arms of the Lord reaching out time and again to forgive and save. Or fuzzy Jesuit theology (sorry, I couldn’t resist either!).
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Those poor Jesuits, what have they done not to deserve this?
 
ComradeAndrei said:
And all of those people wore their habit/clerics when it was possible.👍 In seminary we are taught to be well groomed, clean and neat in appearance because such an appearance shows that you have a degree of self-respect and maturity. .
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and i doubt that all of those people put much store in personal grooming. I’d say they just got up in the morning and slung their habit on and got on with it.

My post wasn’t an argument against clerical clothing or habits. Far from it, I reckon there’s a lot to be said for wearing them. But as to how I want my parish priest to dress, as to what I think my priest should wear? **It’s none of my business. ** The time I spend thinking about what other Christians should or shouldn’t be doing is time wasted.

I wonder if this might be the sort of thing that puts a man off entering the seminary - the knowledge that once he is a priest, parishioners are going to be watching him like an eagle to see if he looks the part, plays the role, “Oh, Father, you look sharp today” (read, “Oh Father, you look like a good holy man should look”). It goes back to my point that people should notice what a priest does far more than what he wears!

Or am I reading too much into this thread? Is it just a fun, light little conversation that doesn’t actually mean anything and I shouldn’t take offence?
 
ComradeAndrei said:
I think that it is pompous and self-righteous to condemn a priest wearing a cassock as vain and worldy. Just because he’s wearing a cassock and looking very presentable doesn’t mean that he’s a jet-set priest w/ a few closets full of Gammareli cassocks and platinum cuff links:rolleyes:. This reminds me of those conversations we have about the Pope dressing too richly. Catholics aren’t tasteless puritans.

.
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i do hope you’re not calling what I said pompous and selfrighteous. Again, if so, you’d be reading into my post things that aren’t there.

I don’t look at a priest wearing a cassock" and go “ah, he’s obviously a good priest” :confused: I’d be stupid to do so wouldn’t I? But that’s what it seems some people in here are suggesting by the tone and timbre of their posts: Simple equations of
black clericals + white collar = good, orthodox priest or
plain clothes + no collar = a priest who’s somehow not quite living up to his call.
Juts as I don’t look at a priest wearing a cassock and go “what a vain pompous prat” or at a priest wearing plain clothes and think “What a genuine, down to earth priest of the people” nor at a priest wearing faded clericals and sandals and think “playing the street priest are we?”

Instead, my impressions of a priest are formed over time as I get to know them and see how they love, how they live, how they treat the people around them. If, for some reason, I was to draw up a list of what things made a good priest, what they wore would be somewhere near the bottom.
 
ComradeAndrei said:
The clothes don’t necessarily make the man, but dressing properly (i.e. meeting the requirements and doing so neatly) should be done. You will generally edify many more people by dressing respectably in your clerics than you will by wearing “civies” or trying to play “street priest” w/ faded clerics and dirty collars.
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Hmm, “meeting the requirements.” Interesting phrase. Yep, a servant of the poor, sick, bereaved and lonely needs to meet requirements of dress otherwise he can’t serve them properly. A man who’s chosen celibacy so he can be free to give fully of himself to all that he meets, to love them as Christ loves them, needs to be quite certain that he is firstly edifying them with his dress (only secondly with the way he treats them?) as he does so. A man sharing in the priesthood of Christ, going to the Cross with him, needs to be, first and foremost… “respectable.”
Uh huh.
 
What this thread points to is something that I’ve said in these forums before - it’s so much easier to sit here and talk about priests not wearing clericals, bishops not doing their jobs, Jesuits having fuzzy theology, liturgical abuses… much easier than getting out there and actually making sure your priest has all he needs to live out his call (and also helping out your fellow parishioners with theirs) - to supporting him and loving him and letting him know he’s not alone. How would it be if instead of telling our priests how sharp and natty they look in their nice clothes we instead told them of just what it meant to us that time they helped us out, or looked out for so-and-so, or did whatever it was that was Christlike, and gave them a hug along with that?
How would it be if we didn’t say things in an internet forum that we would never say to a person’s face, but instead got off our backside and got out into the world and actually starting thinking less about what the Bishops, or our priest, or “the Church” should be doing and more about what we should be doing?

Can anyone say, “a new evangelisation?”
 
What this thread points to is something that I’ve said in these forums before - it’s so much easier to sit here and talk about priests not wearing clericals, bishops not doing their jobs, Jesuits having fuzzy theology, liturgical abuses… much easier than getting out there and actually making sure your priest has all he needs to live out his call (and also helping out your fellow parishioners with theirs) - to supporting him and loving him and letting him know he’s not alone. How would it be if instead of telling our priests how sharp and natty they look in their nice clothes we instead told them of just what it meant to us that time they helped us out, or looked out for so-and-so, or did whatever it was that was Christlike, and gave them a hug along with that?
How would it be if we didn’t say things in an internet forum that we would never say to a person’s face, but instead got off our backside and got out into the world and actually starting thinking less about what the Bishops, or our priest, or “the Church” should be doing and more about what we should be doing?

Can anyone say, “a new evangelisation?”
 
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