As I recall from many years ago (which shows how many msgr have been appointed recently) a monsignor is a “domestic prelate”
They have the title and their garb looks a bit like a bishop’s. They start to wear that purple in highlights of their cassck.
It’s good to hear that the title and rank has not disappeared.
There’s a good many scholarly and otherwise professional priests that have served very well and, you might say, deserve some distinction.
I remember when our aging pastor was invested as a Monsignor by the Bishop, but it was many years ago.
He became frail, and the assistant priest used to help him into a chair in the sanctuary. He did not retire to a personal residence or nursing home. He may have passed away while in residence in the rectory.
When I served at funeral Masses when he presided, we went to the cemetery with him for the graveside service. He was elderly and couldn’t turn his head easily. We had to help him navigate the traffic to the cemetery.
He had a push button transmission on his Chrysler Imperial (so I recall). In his sermons, he seemed to lament the comforts of the push-button modern technology. But, he was the only one actually WITH that technology that I was aware of.
His biretta (hat) had a purple fuzz ball on it. The altar boys used to take turns putting it on, to test it out for ourselves. I don’t think I ever did that.
Don’t get me wrong. He seemed to be a really pious man, and I often found him deep in prayer when I went to serve Mass.
The last bishop we had here abandoned the use of the miter headpiece, because the kids used to ask him so many questions about it, he became self-conscious or just annoyed.
