non-Catholics coming to Catholic liturgies in liturgical vestments

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universityprof said:
What? Why would you state that they are lay people? If they are ministers in their own faith they are certainly not lay people.
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Because no matter what they think they are in their own faith, they have not received the sacrament of holy orders. hence, they are still lay people.
 
This may come as a shock to non-converts or Catholics who have never set foot in a NC church, but Catholics are not the only ones to wear vestments.

Other than fundamentalists, ministers often wear vestments in their own places of worship.

Episcopal and Lutheran ministers often wear the whole thing, alb, stole, and chasuble. Other Protestant ministers often wear an alb and stole, or cassock and stole. Methodists Presbyterians, Reformed, Disciples of Christ, and Congregational UCC ministers frequently wear vestments in their own houses of worship, not to mention Orthodox.

Hate to say this but Catholics don’t have an exclusive when it comes to vestments, whether validly ordained or not.
 
andrewstx said:
This may come as a shock to non-converts or Catholics who have never set foot in a NC church, but Catholics are not the only ones to wear vestments.

Other than fundamentalists, ministers often wear vestments in their own places of worship.

Episcopal and Lutheran ministers often wear the whole thing, alb, stole, and chasuble. Other Protestant ministers often wear an alb and stole, or cassock and stole. Methodists Presbyterians, Reformed, Disciples of Christ, and Congregational UCC ministers frequently wear vestments in their own houses of worship, not to mention Orthodox.

Hate to say this but Catholics don’t have an exclusive when it comes to vestments, whether validly ordained or not.
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Nobody’s arguing with that. The question was whether or not it’s appropriate for them to wear their vestments to a Catholic Mass.
 
For any minister, their vestments are a sight of their office. If they have been invited to an event because of the office they hold then it might be expected they wear what is associated with that office. It would be helpful if those doing the inviting were to state the dress code in the invite, which I believe usually happens. I know Anglican ministers who have really tried hard to get it right when interacting with the Catholic Church.
 
universityprof said:
What? Why would you state that they are lay people? If they are ministers in their own faith they are certainly not lay people.
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Indeed they are laymen. The Church has declared that Anglican orders are invalid, null, have no effect. Protestant orders are invalid, as they do not have the Divine authority which is only found in the Church, and to a certain extent schismatic Churches who have retained apostolic succession, and in, of course, the Orthodox Church since they certainly do have apostolic succession.

The lady who wore a stole to the Mass, probably never knew any better. Now of course, she could’ve known better and perhaps was trying to make a political statement.

But even the act of the Bishop sending a lady “minister” a stole could send out the wrong message to Catholics in his diocese, even though there was only good intent.

But I am not a canon lawyer, nor am I a theologian. But, it’s not the bishop’s fault that she wore the stole, it was her own decision. It does bother me that she did though, and this could have sent the wrong message to Catholics.

God Bless :signofcross::byzsoc:
 
Mrs_Sally said:
I think though that even if the bishop hadn’t given the stoles (several years ago), she would have been dressed the same way - in an alb and a stole. Ministers of the liturgical denominations (Anglicans, Lutherans, Methodists) dress like that for their own services.

As a clergyperson going to a liturgy, she obviously thought dressing that way was appropriate. Since she wasn’t actually on the altar, no rules were violated. Maybe someone said something to her about her choice of dress; maybe not. That is between her and the bishop.
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Exactly! So, what some are attempting to say, is this: the bishop is at fault by making people think the wrong thing about this Protestant minister – by (giving her the gift of a stole and) making certain that no one got the wrong idea by ensuring that she sat in the pews with the rest of the laity. :rolleyes:

sigh…
 
Perhaps in the future it can simply be requested that members of other religions/“denominations” not wear liturgical dress, but rather their equivalent of choir dress or house dress.
 
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