Overdressing for Mass in Tennessee

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I agree with @julietteamdg. Just to add one suggestion: Please keep wearing your suit to church. It will set a good example for the men imo.
 
Thank-you for all your help! The temperature down here is certainly an issue. Outside of Church I’ll be found in shorts and a t-shirt as much as possible. I certainly don’t want to give the impression that the others were badly dressed, far from it, just not as dressed up as I was familiar with. My parish back in England was rather traditional, but also excessive heat is not a problem that is often encountered 🙂 This has been a very welcoming part of the world, and I give thanks to God for being in a place where faith is not derided.
 
You’re fine…although there is a cultural component…I remember returning to Michigan in July after living in Hawaii for 3 years, and without thinking about it, attending church in shorts, an aloha shirt, and flip flops…got some looks, and I adjusted to the cultural norms…in Hawaii, what I wore was appropriate attire for any church services from Baptisms to Weddings to Funerals…we referred to it as a Hawaiian Tuxedo!
 
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Lucy_1 said:
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HomeschoolDad:
Catholics don’t tend to police each other’s dress.
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cough
I think you may have missed a few dozen threads in the forums.
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CAF is not representative of Catholics as a whole. I have yet to meet a Catholic outside of the “fervent apostolic” subculture (such as the readers of this forum), or outside of the more strait-laced traditionalist Latin Mass circles, who gives two hoots about what anybody wears to Mass. It doesn’t even begin to be an issue.
 
mary77 said:
a lot of our counselors were from england and they told me how shocked they were the way american women dressed when they went even to shop, they told me their MUM would wear a dress to go to the supermarket
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I’d take that with a pinch of salt. It’s not unheard of for British people to go to the supermarket in their pyjamas and a dressing gown! Mum drives the kids to school in her pyjamas and dressing gown, then drives from school to the supermarket, does the shopping in her pyjamas and dressing gown, and doesn’t put on proper clothes until she’s got home and had time for a shower or bath.

One of my best friends in London is a American woman. She moved to the UK after five years living in New York. She says that one of the things that she loves about living in London is that there is so much less pressure to look good all the time. The way she tells it, living in New York is like being part of a 24/7 fashion show.
old_man_chris said:
gray suit, white shirt, black tie
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The only thing that surprises me is that you wear a white shirt and a black tie. I would think of that as something you would wear to a funeral. My husband owns one white shirt, which gets worn about once a year to a funeral or a university ceremony. I have never known him to wear a black tie except to a funeral.

I do know a chap who is a Baptist minister from Tennessee. He always dresses pretty casually. On his church website, he is pictured in a short-sleeved, open-necked plaid shirt. Oh, and this is after 39 years in the UK.
 
I hope you’re right, but I doubt it. One time I brought my kids to a church dinner (not Mass) and one of them was wearing shorts, and the next table over talked about the inappropriateness of her dress. Loudly. We weren’t even Catholic at the time, and 10 year old daughter was so humiliated. And it wasn’t an EF or anything.
 
HomeschoolDad said:
who gives two hoots
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A couple told my mother (who rarely comes to church, mind you), “aren’t you a little poorly dressed for church”? Or something like that. It made my mom very upset, and she didn’t want to go to church anymore (though, eventually she acquiesced)
 
I’m sorry that some Catholics are so rude to others about clothing choices. If anybody ever made remarks like that about one of my family members, I would give them such a bawling out I would need to go confess.

No one has ever called me out on my clothes, but if they did I’d probably just say “I asked Jesus and he said it was okay and he also said you should mind your own business.”
 
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Hello and welcome! 🙂

Please keep wearing your very best to Mass! Wow, you are outstanding! I could write a book on dressing for the occasion…

I have said it many times…men tend to always dress better than women…the women in the USA seem to just grab what is comfortable in their closet instead of what is appropriate. I, myself, do dress up for Mass and will usually glance in my mirror before leaving the house to make sure my attire is respectable. Hopefully you will make other take note on what to wear…in God’s House…Amen! 😉
 
adamhovey1988 said:
A couple told my mother (who rarely comes to church, mind you), “aren’t you a little poorly dressed for church”? Or something like that. It made my mom very upset, and she didn’t want to go to church anymore (though, eventually she acquiesced)
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If someone were to say something like that to my mother, I would forget I was Catholic and let them have it.
 
She was in the back of the church, I didn’t know it was said until later. I’m very defensive of my mother.
 
OraProNobis333 said:
It’s not commonly done in Novus Ordo/Diocesan Churches as literally every aspect of the faith and practice thereof is watered down to the point of banality. Attend a Traditional Latin Mass community in any state during any time of the year and you will see virtually every single man, woman and child dressed in their Sunday best (as it should be).
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This is quite a sweeping condemnation of Holy Mother Church and her members.

Perhaps I’m being “banal,” but I would rather see people dressed in jeans and t-shirts and have love/charity and a correct understanding of the Catholic Church rather than see someone dressed up and filled with bitterness, judgmentalism, and a lack of understanding of our beautiful Holy Mother Church.
 
Just because one person here or there is rude doesn’t mean that all people who dress up for church are ogres.
I think people in their sparkly-bum jeans in church are themselves rude, just by virtue of their casualness.
 
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A fellow parishioner once commented, “If you won’t dress up for our Lord, why dress up for anyone?”

I think it honors God to dress nicely while in Church. A suit and tie in conservative colors sounds very nice, to me.
 
I say overdress and be happy with it. You are English. It will just seem cultural. I do not know what people think of me. Back before spring, I wore a tie 99% of the time. I will start again pretty soon, even though I will be the only one most Sundays. It is simply part of my culture as well, though mine is being a transplant in faith, not geography. As I see it, since I do not mind being better dressed, it will make those that show up also dressed up know they are not alone.
 
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