Should Religious wear the habit at all times?

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Any religious institute that is in communion with the Church is orthodox.

Post charitably.
 
Being a lay person and speaking about religious and wearing of a religious habit, it is entirely up to the Rule and Constitution applying to a particular religious group, i.e. whatever is their religious ruling that may apply to them. I love religious in habit or in secular clothing and I know both.
 
I’m sure this varies depending on the order, but does a religious generally wear the habit if they are “on vacation,” visiting a friend or relative or something? I know a monastery where the monks get a week or two every year (once they are fully professed) to spend as they please, and usually the monks visit their parents/siblings etc.

I’ve often wondered if I joined an order, whether this would be the expectation. My (Protestant) grandmother told me she fully expects me to speak at her funeral one day, which would be quite the sight if I were there in a brown robe or cassock! Are there cases where the habit is more of a distraction than a help?
 
I guess it depends on the order, as few others have mentioned here. As for what I think, well, this is actually something I’ve been pondering about since I had a talk with a friend a while back about the calling to religious life. Whenever I’ve asked myself the question “hmm, I wonder how life would be like if I were a nun?” (not actively discerning that, though…definitely a stronger calling to be a mother and wife), the thought that immediately followed was: “absolutely no way I’d be able to wear a habit all year long”. Been thinking of that because, down here in the Southern Hemisphere, summer is currently insanely hot. Worse than ever (and I mean that literally, we’ve never reached such high temperatures!). I really can’t tolerate heat that well at all… It just made me wonder about all the priests and nuns that have to wear habits during the summer. It may be a bit of a silly reason, but I do think they should have the option to wear secular clothes when they’re out in the street. Definitely something that indicates they’re priests or nuns (such as a cross, or in the case of priests a ‘priest collar’… - don’t know how you call those), but yeah, at least the option to wear lighter clothes in the summer!
 
Not at all times in my opinion. I believe they should wear it during ministry, but during leisure time they should be allowed to wear what they want in accordance with their constitution.

There are benefits to wearing the habit, but it’s not our place to determine what they wear All the time.
 
I prefer that they wear some sort of habit, but for the Jesuits, just as an example, the habit is the garb of, “any priest in good standing.”
 
Inego_de_Loyola said:
I prefer that they wear some sort of habit, but for the Jesuits, just as an example, the habit is the garb of, “any priest in good standing.”
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So you “prefer” that they wear the habit all the time?

May I ask why. Why must we wear the habit ALL the time?

Also can any one answer why the laity who “prefer” this think it is their place to tell religious what they should be doing?

There are legitimate reasons why one would not wear their habit in certain settings. Some of them have even been enumerated in this thread and elsewhere on this forum.

This is one of the topics that keeps popping up every couple of months.

Why do people feel that they know better than the Church and the religious institutes themselves?
 
ByzCath said:
So you “prefer” that they wear the habit all the time?

May I ask why. Why must we wear the habit ALL the time?

Also can any one answer why the laity who “prefer” this think it is their place to tell religious what they should be doing?

There are legitimate reasons why one would not wear their habit in certain settings. Some of them have even been enumerated in this thread and elsewhere on this forum.

This is one of the topics that keeps popping up every couple of months.

Why do people feel that they know better than the Church and the religious institutes themselves?
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Wow. I came onto a poll thread asking for my opinion, so I think you are just a tad out of line. Essentially I said that I thought the habit was a good idea. That is all.
 
Inego_de_Loyola said:
Wow. I came onto a poll thread asking for my opinion, so I think you are just a tad out of line. Essentially I said that I thought the habit was a good idea. That is all.
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I disagree. It is not out of line at all.

The poll asks the opinion of whether or not a religious should wear the habit “at all times” not if they should wear the habit.

I ask why one thinks they should wear it “at all times”.

People are free to have opinions but should they have them and should they voice them in cases where they do not really have any right to a say in the matter? I think not but if they must voice that opinion then I think they must state why they have such an opinion.

In this case I feel that they should 1) tell why they feel a religious should wear the habit “at all times” and 2) why they feel their opinion has any merit as it is for the religious institute to decide such a thing (which is upheld by the Council of Trent by making religious institutes of pontifical right so that local bishops and laity could not affect the internal functioning of the institute).

As a religious I am greatly offended by this topic which, as I pointed out, pops up here at the forums on a regular basis. It is stuff like this that chases us away from here.

Just do a search on the topic and you will see that there have been more religious that responded to this question in the past but now I believe I am the only one who continues to do so. Though I have started to withdraw from here due to the negative atmosphere.
 
Inego_de_Loyola said:
Wow. I came onto a poll thread asking for my opinion, so I think you are just a tad out of line. Essentially I said that I thought the habit was a good idea. That is all.
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Actually he isn’t out of line. Like he said this comes up on here all the time. You will find that many religious honestly start to get offended by talk like this. Both those that wear a habit “religiously” and those that don’t. The only people that should be telling the religious whether they should be wearing a habit or not are those within the community and their founders.

Yes we can state our preferences all we want and notice trends where religious communities that “seem” to wear habits tend to have more new vocations, but that is just that a preference.

The habit of Mother Theresa’s order sticks out in the US but it blends in, in India, which was her intent. Many religious orders purposely try to be of the world, not separate from the world. It doesn’t make them any less spiritual/faithful/etc. then those that have habits distinct from the world.

Let those in the community itself determine whether a religious person should wear the habit within the walls of their own community, off duty, on vacations, etc.

P.S. ByzCath, I saw that you are transferring to Catholic U. If you ever attend the National Shrine and see an usher wearing a Tau cross, say hi its probably me.
 
A religious in a habit performs the spiritual works of mercy in a non-confrontational way.
 
My opinion is that they should but my opinion is just that, an opinion. If they feel like they need to skip wearing the habit for some reason then I leave that decision up to their own personal judgment and to the judgment of their spiritual director and/or advisers.
 
I am sure that readers of this thread and of the many, many threads on this topic on this forum if you would just search for them will notice that this is a hot button issue for me.

No one out side of a religious institute has any right to criticize how they function. Their books are closed, their statutes/constitutions are mostly private, and the chapters where things are voted on are private. The only (name removed by moderator)ut from the Church comes with the election of a new prior-general for my order. The pope ratifies it. For the provinces the prior-general ratifies the election of the prior-provincial.

I wound like to how people would take it if threads and polls were started every couple of weeks/months asking if the laity should always dress in suits for men and dresses for women?
 
ByzCath said:
I wound like to how people would take it if threads and polls were started every couple of weeks/months asking if the laity should always dress in suits for men and dresses for women?
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I would approve of that.👍 It’s like every Sunday is casual Friday at my parish. 😃
 
Having been in formation as a Franciscan Friar for 6 years I sometimes wore a habit, but most often did not.

Francis himself basically choose poor workmans clothing for himself. Many habits are idealizations of medieval work or peasant clothing.

The Province I was in believed that the Habit could cause a barrier in ministry, and in those situations it was not used. The barrier could be that people may treat the Friars with more respect, awe etc in situations where they were trying to be lesser brothers (fratrer minorem) and were not looking to be treated differently.

The Friars believed their ministry was not to look like St. Francis for the faithful, but to look like and be poor for the poor.

Right now Catholics want religious to wear habits because we feel the Church is somewhat under attack.

However we, lay-people, need to take up our cross, put our hand to the plough (plow for you Yanks) and do our bit.
 
Inego_de_Loyola said:
I would approve of that.👍 It’s like every Sunday is casual Friday at my parish. 😃
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My question was asked as if this dress would be worn “at all times” not just to Church on Sundays.

I think this is something that people who are voting and opining on here do not notice in the question asked. Its asking if religious should wear their habits “at all times”.
 
As a person who has been strongly discerning religious life for the past 5 years…

I think religious should wear the traditional habit 100% percent of the time. The religious orders that are growing the most are those that wear the habit. While those who do not, are seeing a drastic decrease in vocations. I would never consider an order that did not wear the traditional habit.
  1. It’s a sign of poverty. (which isn’t just for Poor Clare’s or Franciscans - all sisters/nuns make the vow of poverty and should follow it.)
  2. It’s a physical sign to others. (People don’t act in the same manner when they see a religious in the habit - which is how it should be.)
  3. Modesty! (I’ve seen some religious communities who do not wear the habit and have very revealing clothes.)
  4. Humility. (They don’t have to worry about worldly clothes, fixing their hair, wearing earrings or how they should dress to impress others.)
  5. It shows their consecration to God!
There are many reasons why I’m in favor of religious, both men and women, wearing a habit. A sister without her habit and a priest without his collar is like a married couple who refuses to wear their wedding rings.
 
konk93 said:
As a person who has been strongly discerning religious life for the past 5 years…

I think religious should wear the traditional habit 100% percent of the time. The religious orders that are growing the most are those that wear the habit. While those who do not, are seeing a drastic decrease in vocations. I would never consider an order that did not wear the traditional habit.
  1. It’s a sign of poverty. (which isn’t just for Poor Clare’s or Franciscans - all sisters/nuns make the vow of poverty and should follow it.)
  2. It’s a physical sign to others. (People don’t act in the same manner when they see a religious in the habit - which is how it should be.)
  3. Modesty! (I’ve seen some religious communities who do not wear the habit and have very revealing clothes.)
  4. Humility. (They don’t have to worry about worldly clothes, fixing their hair, wearing earrings or how they should dress to impress others.)
  5. It shows their consecration to God!
There are many reasons why I’m in favor of religious, both men and women, wearing a habit. A sister without her habit and a priest without his collar is like a married couple who refuses to wear their wedding rings.
Click to expand...
So what about communities that were founded without a habit?

I have seen the statement you make about habited communites growing and those without not growing but I have never seen any proof of this. It seems to be something people just say, that does not make it fact. Do you have any evidence of this statement?

How is the wearing of a habit all the time a sign to others?
 
konk93 said:
As a person who has been strongly discerning religious life for the past 5 years…

I think religious should wear the traditional habit 100% percent of the time. The religious orders that are growing the most are those that wear the habit. While those who do not, are seeing a drastic decrease in vocations. I would never consider an order that did not wear the traditional habit.
  1. It’s a sign of poverty. (which isn’t just for Poor Clare’s or Franciscans - all sisters/nuns make the vow of poverty and should follow it.)
  2. It’s a physical sign to others. (People don’t act in the same manner when they see a religious in the habit - which is how it should be.)
  3. Modesty! (I’ve seen some religious communities who do not wear the habit and have very revealing clothes.)
  4. Humility. (They don’t have to worry about worldly clothes, fixing their hair, wearing earrings or how they should dress to impress others.)
  5. It shows their consecration to God!
There are many reasons why I’m in favor of religious, both men and women, wearing a habit. A sister without her habit and a priest without his collar is like a married couple who refuses to wear their wedding rings.
Click to expand...
Regarding the wedding rings-
I have been happily married for over 20 years.
My husband wore his wedding ring for exactly 1 week.
After that is was back to work as a machinist- with a very strick “no jewelry policy”. Now, the rules are as strict for him but his ring just doesn’t fit anymore, and it feels weird to him, so no big deal!

I wore my for the first 10 years. Then I went into food service, I first time I burned myself because gold is a great conductor, the ring came off.
Now I only wear them when we go out.

We are no “less married” as our love for each other is not dependent on whether or not we wear our wedding rings.

I believe the same could be said for a religious and a habit.
 
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