Romanian Catholic vestments and house dress

[LumenGent]

Hi Guys,

I have noticed that the Bishops of the Romanian Catholic Church wear Liturgical vestments corresponding to the Byzantine Churches, however unlike the other Byzantine Churches, do not wear Byzantine “house” or “choir” dress, instead they wear a Roman cassock with sash and zuccheto and the Syriac outer cassock with the red lining and ribbons. Can anybody shed any light on this aberrant custom?

 

[chaldobyzantine]

I tried doing a bit of research on your question, and it does seem peculiar that RGC bishops do wear Latinized vestments outside of Liturgy or church services.

Immediately I found that His Beatitude Lucian Muresan dresses in this manner and it looks all too common to me because it resembles what Chaldean Catholic bishops wear (instead of traditional Church of the East clerical clothing).

It may just be another lingering Latinization that would end soon, just as it did with the Ruthenian and Ukrainian Churches. So don’t sweat it

God Bless

 

[LumenGent]

Thanks for that ChaldoByzantine.

I wouldn’t call it a full blown Latinization, unless the Liturgy is also tainted. I suppose one can also say that they are open to partial Latinizations and Syriacizations.

On a similar note, The current Coptic Catholic Patriarch appears to be making limited use of his Roman Cassock and sash ever since he was created Cardinal. Whenever he dons the cassock and shoulder cape, he also wears the Syriac outer cassock over it. One point of distinction is that he never wears the red zucchetto and/or biretta.

Liturgically, the Catholic Copts could be said to be Syriacized because they use Syriac style vestments. The same is seen of the Armenians. If anything, what this demonstrates, is that the decries against Latinizations in support of “Liturgical purification” in the various OC/EC Churches don’t appear to hold the same weight with regards to other “foreign” practices such as Syriacizations and Byzantinizations when present.

 

[Little_Boy_Lost]

It looks like patriarch naguib wears a kamilavka with a monastic veil. Is this coptic? It looks byzantine…

 

[LumenGent]

Yes he does wear that, and that is one of the comments I made in my former post: The outcries against Latinizations, but not Byzantinizations.

 

[Formosus]

At the very least the outer cassock is probably not a syriacization since the idea of the outer cassock was forced on all eastern Christians by the ottomans to begin with.

As far as “liturgical purification” goes, its up to the copts to return to faithfully following their traditions if they are not.

Tbh though, housedress is really secondary anyways. Yeah I think its preferable for eastern clergy to wear eastern cassocks, but I would much rather focus or worry about the liturgy, belief, and spirituality before worrying about house cloths.

 

[Aramis]

Most of the prelates in the US can be seen in clerical shirt suits at various times, even those who wear the traditional house dress most of the time… in some cases, it’s an adaptation to the non-Catholic people of the area.

Then again, I’ve seen EO bishops also wearing the clerical suit, too. It’s a convenient symbol to tell the protestants that the wearer is a cleric.

 

[Hesychios]

It may just be another lingering Latinization that would end soon …

Don’t look for it to end soon.

However, it is not a major concern, although it may be symbolic of the wearers sentiments. I would call it fashion sense.

There are other things far more important.