Priests in white cassocks?

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Caesar

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Why do some priests in Africa and South America wear white cassocks?
 
Caesar said:
Why do some priests in Africa and South America wear white cassocks?
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Because black would be really, really hot?:eek: I’m just guessing it’s the color their order wears like the Dominicans.
 
Heat?
I know some orders allow for two colours- white and the colour of the order.
 
…white cassocks are usually the apparel for the priest in the tropics, because it is cooler and the cloth is lighter in weight.

I know our priests find black in Brisbane in summer penitential for their northern hemisphere constitutions.

Also priests will often wear beards in missionary countries as a cultural concession as beardless men were/are seen to be effete.
 
Melanie01 said:
…white cassocks are usually the apparel for the priest in the tropics, because it is cooler and the cloth is lighter in weight.

I know our priests find black in Brisbane in summer penitential for their northern hemisphere constitutions.

Also priests will often wear beards in missionary countries as a cultural concession as beardless men were/are seen to be effete.
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The Church is practical from time to time.😉 That would make sense because it would sometimes be impossible to do the work you needed to do if you were going to get heatstroke! Really, that was my first guess.
 
Caesar said:
Regular Diocesans. Not orders.
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Diocesan also. In fact wearing white is pretty much common with all Churches-Catholic, Orthodox and if the Protestants happen to wear distinctive clerical garb. The only ones I’m not sure about are the Coptic monks- I only see them in black and one looked as if he was wearing white at their Easter but it was mostly under his vestments.

BTW, your Cofraternity members are waiting for you at the Clubhouse
 
THe norbetine order wears white cassocks. In fact I think I read somewhere that the tradition of the Pope wearing white cassocks came from a Pope who was elected from that order.
 
joshua1 said:
THe norbetine order wears white cassocks. In fact I think I read somewhere that the tradition of the Pope wearing white cassocks came from a Pope who was elected from that order.
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Actually it was a Dominican Pope. Though well St Dominic was a Norbertine.
 
Common, in fact very typical of the clothing used by clerics in the tropical regions of the world.clerics
 
White cassocks are a practical concession for priests living in hot climates. However, many now simply wear a white cleric shirt with lightweight trousers. In Australia, priests seem to be generally encouraged to wear a cleric shirt rather than the full cassock, but I think it’s coming full circle, and many now want to appear more traditional and wear a full cassock at least on formal occasions.
 
Oh dear, just to be flippant for a minute, and I hope this doesn’t offend anyone but… was I the only one to see the title of this thread and think immediately of that song in The Sound of Music? You know, ‘These are a few of my favourite things’? Whiskers on kittens and tumty-tum tum tum, girls in white dresses with blue satin sashes.
Drat, I’ll be humming it all day now.
 
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