Should there be a dress code for EMHCs?

[JHow]

Regardless if you think that there should be a dress code for the entire parish, should there be a dress code at least for EMHCs?

If so, what should it include?

For a number of years in our parish they wore white smock-like affairs (alb), but then that was stopped. Now they just wear “street clothes” - whatever they would normally wear, dresses, aloha shirts, etc.

I don’t think there needs to be a dress code. They are all adults, they should be able to select something appropriate.

 

[Pilgrim1701]

The main rule should be that the women should wear sufficiently high necklines so that if she is 5’2" and the communicant is 6’4", he is still not assaulted with a view of her cleavage. I think a lot of women look in the mirror and believe themselves to be covered, but don’t consider that some people looking at them from close range will see them from a much steeper angle.

Custody of the eyes. No need to walk the road of version of sharia law, telling women what to wear because a guy can’t concentrate on the eucharist he’s recieving.

Ok. We’ve had the "I think"s, " I would make everyone"s, "It should be"s, all the spectrum of personal opinion. Ones opinion of what was good 50 years ago is no more applicable now than it was 500 years ago. How you dress doesn’t really give you the right to tell someone else how to, or vice versa for that matter.
Is there anything difinitive on a ‘dress code’ for lay minsteries, extending this to EMHCs also, say from the GIRM or Canon Law or whatever? Or is it guidance from particular bishops conferences. Or is it just a case of people wanting to tell other people what to wear?
Was trying to see what the ‘official’ case is in Ireland but end up going around in these kind of circles. As I said, already know what some peoples own opinions are, but whats the official stance of the church?

 

[MissRose73]

I would prefer to see anyone who is an EMHC should either be wearing something appropriate for business casual or professional office that is clean, neat, and modest in their clothing, shoes, and accessories.

 

[YoungTradCath]

Sure, there should be a dress code not only for EMs, but for everyone. People should have enough sense and dignity to take it upon themselves to dress for the occasion, as best they can according to their financial situation. It’s blatant disrespect and disregard otherwise.

People might say, “Oh, YoungTradCath, do be charitable! Perhaps they have nothing to wear…” for x reason. But honestly, are our washers and dryers in worse condition than they were in the 1960s? Have all our alarm clocks decided to break themselves, thus preventing time to select an outfit that is in good taste? Do we have any shortage of available means of buying clothing? Have all the clothing stores closed shop miraculously? Are the foreign workers on strike? Obviously not for long enough for people to go ahead and buy skimpy/indecent clothing. The answer to all these questions is no. Modesty is a good virtue. To not have it is wrong, not to mention sinful, especially and certainly not precluding in mass. I don’t think there’s much of an argument to be made otherwise.

 

[EasterJoy]

Sure, there should be a dress code not only for EMs, but for everyone. People should have enough sense and dignity to take it upon themselves to dress for the occasion, as best they can according to their financial situation. It’s blatant disrespect and disregard otherwise.

People might say, “Oh, YoungTradCath, do be charitable! Perhaps they have nothing to wear…” for x reason. But honestly, are our washers and dryers in worse condition than they were in the 1960s? Have all our alarm clocks decided to break themselves, thus preventing time to select an outfit that is in good taste? Do we have any shortage of available means of buying clothing? Have all the clothing stores closed shop miraculously? Are the foreign workers on strike? Obviously not for long enough for people to go ahead and buy skimpy/indecent clothing. The answer to all these questions is no. Modesty is a good virtue. To not have it is wrong, not to mention sinful, especially and certainly not precluding in mass. I don’t think there’s much of an argument to be made otherwise.

You are saying there ought to be a dress code based on modesty, not on the state of the clothing in other respects, right?

 

[YoungTradCath]

You are saying there ought to be a dress code based on modesty, not on the state of the clothing in other respects, right?

Yes, because nothing else matters, when it comes down to it, does it? Formality, for instance, can correlate with modesty, and often does, but does not guarantee it. Business casual is the same way. But when we prescribe a “modest” dress code, it leaves no room for deviation, and it has the poor covered.

 

[odile53]

They should dress in good taste. Anyone who doesn’t know what “good taste” means probably would not be able to carry out the requirements of the office, sorry to say. It probably shouldn’t be distinctive clothing, it should just be something that someone who can do other business or social tasks such as going to a decent restaurant, serving on jury duty, or holding down a job in a professional looking office would wear in those settings. Nothing particularly complicated here.

The big beef I have is long hair, and my hair is very long, by the way, so I have no prejudice against the long-haired of either gender. But long hair has its own handling issues, and if you haven’t figured those out, you have no business distributing communion. I should say that the big beef I have is long, unsecured hair, meaning a big strand of the extraordinary minister’s long hair went dangling into the chalice or the ciborium. Yep, actually saw this happen, right in my communion line, right into the Most Precious Blood! You could have knocked me over with a feather. When she offered me the chalice, I said, “Amen,” and then hissed, “Hair!” I don’t know if she got the hint.

I don’t know what the correct procedure is for handling something like that, but I sure called the parish office and complained about it to the priest on Monday morning. It has to be some kind of sacramental abuse, in addition to the issue of a communicant having to drink contaminated consecrated wine. Father was as appalled as I was, knew who the young lady was, and said he’d talk to her about it.

Long-hairs, of either gender, at least have the good sense to tie it back or put it up! Yikes!

 

[JHow]

…Long-hairs, of either gender, at least have the good sense to tie it back or put it up! Yikes!

Kinda reminded me of the end of Easy Rider: “Get a haircut!”