Sunday Best? Church Leaders Blush at "Casual Catholic" Dress

[_Abyssinia]

“Casual Friday” has become a staple of American office culture. But what about “Casual Sunday”?

For decades, houses of worship have been consecrated by tidy congregations in their very best dress. Trim suits and ties pulled straight enough to choke the fidgety young parishioner were the norm, anything less being sure to draw the scorn of the flock.

But the culture has changed, and with it the Church. For some preachers and priests, word of this “new day” is written not in any holy book, but rather on the T-shirts young worshippers now wear to Sunday Mass.

Not everyone has taken so heartily to leisure wear in “God’s house.” One couple, says Deacon Greg Kandra, wanted to dress their dog in a tuxedo. The canine was slated to walk down the aisle as a member of the wedding party. (Their request was denied.)

But that tale ranks on the more modest end of the spectrum.

“I had a friend, a priest, who while offering communion to a woman in a low cut shirt … dropped the Host down the front of her shirt,” Deacon Kandra recalls, half-laughing.

“She didn’t want to grab at ‘the body of Christ,’ but she eventually did. He certainly wasn’t going to get it.”

Then there was the woman in the Hooters shirt.

abcnews.go.com/US/sunday-funday-church-leaders-blush-casual-catholic-dress/story?id=14464977

 

[Spencerian]

Fascinating article, and surprisingly balanced.

It’s also a sign of our “I’m my own authority, I set my own rules” mindset throughout the world, but especially in America, that’s causing so many problems in many areas of our communities. Things like proper dress. Obeying simple rules such as speed limits. Sexual morality.

In all cases, when the law is broken, one eventually has to own up to it. Improper dress in a church may get only a stern look from the pastor, but continue that behavior into the workplace and you’ll not likely get promoted, or even fired. Breaking the speed limit (often because of disregard or inattentiveness) in a school or construction zone and you’ll likely main or kill someone. Disregard for sexual etiquette could lead to early pregnancy and a damaged body from STDs.

Rules do matter. God gave us the Ten Commandments, *not *the Ten Suggestions.

And they’re still in effect, thank you.

 

[Andrew_Odom]

This is a fairly well-done article on one of my pet-peeves.

Having been away from the Church for 20+ until returning almost a decade ago in my early 30s, I still do a double-take when I see grown men wearing shorts to Mass, or sandals, and even flip-flops. It’s just a parade of jeans, short-sleeves and/or t-shirts and yes, high skirts on the ladies and girls, including one or two who sing in the choir just to the side of the altar. It’s as if all the adults were abducted. Even older people (60s and up) no longer look dressed well and in fact, I hate to say, are sometimes basically products of the Woodstock generation.

I’m further South in the U.S> than I used to be and yes, it’s hot out here in the spring, summer and usually the autumn, but the AC is always cranked and yet people still attend with this beach bum look. It’s as if they want credit just for showing up: as in “hey, what do you want from me?”

To me, it’s another piece of rotten fruit from the '60 counterculture and '70s “Me decade”, with that premium put on “comfort” and “individualism.” The priests sadly say nothing about it but I try to set an example with my kids and how I dress. It’s as if we are at entirely different functions.

Also, Sunday is less sacred with the end of the blue-laws that closed shops on Sundays, so people attend as if they are running off somewhere else: soccer practice, etc. I see softball games (albeit a Jewish league) and soccer games (all sorts of folks) all over at 9am on Sundays.

On Facebook recently, someone dug up a 1974 article from upstate New York where (Jewish) mall developer was pressuring the county to end the blue laws…and eventually succeeded. The comments were fascinating and it reminded me of how quiet Sundays were and how much they were a family day (Mass, etc.) but never shopping…for everyone, in effect.

I passed a immigrant (that’s just descriptive) moving the lawn (one of those big machines) on Sunday outside the church in ajacent business last week and this is the norm even in my fractured family /divorced / secular/ Hindu/ Budhist neighborhood, which is oblivious to the day and the notion of it being at least a day of rest. The sound of the lawnmowers makes me want to move away.

Also, there’s a real juvenile look for today’s 35+ males. They look like school boys in shorts and even when dressed well as lawyers downtown, commonly top it off with a baseball cap and not a real hat, if it is raining or they want to cover their head.

It’s also been said the internet /IT world casual trend extended from Friday’s (a fad I had hoped would end) to the rest of the week. In a major US city, I see so many men even into their 50s ostensibly on the way to work in t-shirts, jeans and even sandals and flip-flops. It’s been said with the bad economy (1 out of 5) that the casual look is fading but not fast enough for me.

I think we can slowly set the tone at Mass but it’s going to be a long way back. Bring back the adults of society!

 

[OriginalJS]

“I had a friend, a priest, who while offering communion to a woman in a low cut shirt … dropped the Host down the front of her shirt,” Deacon Kandra recalls, half-laughing.

“She didn’t want to grab at ‘the body of Christ,’ but she eventually did. He certainly wasn’t going to get it.”

Then there was the woman in the Hooters shirt.

abcnews.go.com/US/sunday-funday-church-leaders-blush-casual-catholic-dress/story?id=14464977
I saw this on Facebook or some other site a few months ago.

 

[curlycool89]

It’s also been said the internet /IT world casual trend extended from Friday’s (a fad I had hoped would end) to the rest of the week. In a major US city, I see so many men even into their 50s ostensibly on the way to work in t-shirts, jeans and even sandals and flip-flops. It’s been said with the bad economy (1 out of 5) that the casual look is fading but not fast enough for me.

Excellent, I see that the world is become a less shallow place where people are not judged because of what they wear.

Suits are uncomfortable to wear, and dressy shirts usually come in styles of “ugly” and “why haven’t you burned that yet?” One of the reasons I am glad to be done my work term and be back in school: I can again wear comfortable clothes and grow a beard.

I think we can slowly set the tone at Mass but it’s going to be a long way back. Bring back the adults of society!

For the most part, they never left. Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem that “the clothes make the man” people did either.

 

[Skeptic92]

“Casual Friday” has become a staple of American office culture. But what about “Casual Sunday”?

For decades, houses of worship have been consecrated by tidy congregations in their very best dress. Trim suits and ties pulled straight enough to choke the fidgety young parishioner were the norm, anything less being sure to draw the scorn of the flock.

But the culture has changed, and with it the Church. For some preachers and priests, word of this “new day” is written not in any holy book, but rather on the T-shirts young worshippers now wear to Sunday Mass.

Not everyone has taken so heartily to leisure wear in “God’s house.” One couple, says Deacon Greg Kandra, wanted to dress their dog in a tuxedo. The canine was slated to walk down the aisle as a member of the wedding party. (Their request was denied.)

But that tale ranks on the more modest end of the spectrum.

“I had a friend, a priest, who while offering communion to a woman in a low cut shirt … dropped the Host down the front of her shirt,” Deacon Kandra recalls, half-laughing.

“She didn’t want to grab at ‘the body of Christ,’ but she eventually did. He certainly wasn’t going to get it.”

Then there was the woman in the Hooters shirt.

abcnews.go.com/US/sunday-funday-church-leaders-blush-casual-catholic-dress/story?id=14464977

I find it worrying at times, but on an upside while on WYD I went to mass at the Basílica Pontificia de San Miguel (run by Opus Dei), where several immodestly dressed laity were REFUSED Communion by the Celebrant, one of them directly in front of me.

I actually couldn’t believe it, but I guess immodesty can lead others to sin.

So I guess in some areas, they are at least trying to turn things around

 

[Wolseley]

I don’t have a problem with people wearing casual clothes to Mass, as long as they’re modest and decently covered. (People in the Middle Ages, after all, wore what they had—and for most of them, they only had one or at the very most two changes of clothing).

But I, too, have seen men—usually younger men—in muscle shirts, sloppy swim trunks, and flip-flops, which AFAIC is totally inappropriate attire for Mass. If they wouldn’t show up dressed like that to a job interview, why would they show up like that to appear in front of the King of Kings and Lord of Lords? It’s all just a residue from the “dumbing down” of Catholic worship during the 1965-2000 era, when the focus was all about “us” instead of Him.

Much wose, however, IMHO, are women—usually younger women—who show up in cut-off shorts that reveal more than you want to know, sleeveless t-shirts so tight they look like they’re about ready to pop, skirts so short that if they lean over the mystery is done, and the ubiquitous flip-flops. It’s like they are either totally oblivious to the effect they’re having on the men in the pews, or else they just don’t care. Going to church should be an occasion to improve your holiness before God, not a near occasion of sin where you are surrounded by women dressed in a manner that’s one step removed from a Cosmoplitan cover.

Just a personal gripe of mine. I mean, Lord knows I’m not perfect, and I don’t claim to be, but I at least try.

 

[ringil]

I wear jeans to mass- and to LATIN mass as well!! Oh the horror!! My wife even wears jeans!!!

 

[CMatt25]

I wear jeans to mass- and to LATIN mass as well!! Oh the horror!! My wife even wears jeans!!!

Ringil, I wore jeans, bell bottoms at that , nearly 40 yrs ago to Mass. That’s what, 4 decades ago? It was very common in the Catholic parish in my small midwestern town to see folks in jeans even then along with the mix of suits.

 

[CMatt25]

Having been away from the Church for 20+ until returning almost a decade ago in my early 30s, I still do a double-take when I see grown men wearing shorts to Mass, or sandals, and even flip-flops. It’s just a parade of jeans, short-sleeves and/or t-shirts and yes, high skirts on the ladies and girls, including one or two who sing in the choir just to the side of the altar. It’s as if all the adults were abducted. Even older people (60s and up) no longer look dressed well and in fact…

The priests sadly say nothing about it but I try to set an example with my kids and how I dress. It’s as if we are at entirely different functions.

Just a thought but having been away from the Church for over 20 yrs yourself, I’d think you might also be setting a good example by not doing a “double take” on another’s attire while you are focused on the Lord’s presence, and instead just be happy and praise God these people are even at Mass, the same “function” you are at. They receive the same Body and Blood of Christ as you do in your Sunday best and I’m pretty sure at least as long as they are in the proper state of grace, that He welcomes them to receive Him as much as He does anyone else regardless of whether they are “wearing shorts to Mass, or sandals”… Jesus Himself wore sandals and I’d imagined so did His disciples… Or whether they are in “a parade of jeans, short-sleeves and/or t-shirts”. Maybe that is why the priests say nothing.

 

[sw85]

My parish is almost disgustingly liberal in terms of the dress code. Sweatpants with words written across the butt, sandals and mandals, jorts, jeggings, etc. Ugh! Granted, it gets hot here – we only just finished our 80-consecutive-day 100+ degree heat stroke, but for Heaven’s sake, surely a nice pair of cargo pants and a polo shirt wouldn’t kill anyone.

I showed up to my first mass here (really my first solo mass ever) on Christmas in a suit and tie because it seemed only appropriate and I didn’t really know any better. Needless to say the discomfort I found at being the only person so dressed in the pews was compounded when I discovered a laminated card in the back of the pew in front of me on which was printed an admonition of those who dress up because it makes others feel inadequate!

 

[CMatt25]

My parish is almost disgustingly liberal in terms of the dress code. Sweatpants with words written across the butt, sandals and mandals, jorts, jeggings, etc. Ugh! Granted, it gets hot here – we only just finished our 80-consecutive-day 100+ degree heat stroke, but for Heaven’s sake, surely a nice pair of cargo pants and a polo shirt wouldn’t kill anyone.

I showed up to my first mass here (really my first solo mass ever) on Christmas in a suit and tie because it seemed only appropriate and I didn’t really know any better. Needless to say the discomfort I found at being the only person so dressed in the pews was compounded when I discovered a laminated card in the back of the pew in front of me on which was printed an admonition of those who dress up because it makes others feel inadequate!

At the Mass I attended last Christmas Eve, there were women in sweats. One was very festive in a red sweat top and green sweat pants. An elderly gentlemen with a white beard actually came in with a red Santa cap. I only happened to do a single take because I was sitting near the side door entrance. I myself was in a nice pair of knee length cargo shorts (in a tropical-like climate). Father asked that everyone be welcomed by the (parish name) community. We had Mass. At the end of Mass he said no one knew who had been naughty or nice but we would all know in the morning. I saw nothing wrong with it. It was still Mass.

 

[ChiRho]

I wear jeans to mass- and to LATIN mass as well!! Oh the horror!! My wife even wears jeans!!!

Why?

 

[ringil]

Just a thought but having been away from the Church for over 20 yrs yourself, I’d think you might also be setting a good example by not doing a “double take” on another’s attire while you are focused on the Lord’s presence, and instead just be happy and praise God these people are even at Mass, the same “function” you are at. They receive the same Body and Blood of Christ as you do in your Sunday best and I’m pretty sure at least as long as they are in the proper state of grace, that He welcomes them to receive Him as much as He does anyone else regardless of whether they are “wearing shorts to Mass, or sandals”… Jesus Himself wore sandals and I’d imagined so did His disciples… Or whether they are in “a parade of jeans, short-sleeves and/or t-shirts”. Maybe that is why the priests say nothing.

Jesus wore sandals?!? What’chu talkin’ bout Willis?

 

[ringil]

Why?

Because they cover my nakedness.

 

[ringil]

At the Mass I attended last Christmas Eve, there were women in sweats. One was very festive in a red sweat top and green sweat pants. An elderly gentlemen with a white beard actually came in with a red Santa cap. I only happened to do a single take because I was sitting near the side door entrance. I myself was in a nice pair of knee length cargo shorts (in a tropical-like climate). Father asked that everyone be welcomed by the (parish name) community. We had Mass. At the end of Mass he said no one knew who had been naughty or nice but we would all know in the morning. I saw nothing wrong with it. It was still Mass.

A santa hat?!? Now that’s too much, in fact I am of the opinion that men should take off hats indoors.

 

[CMatt25]

A santa hat?!? Now that’s too much, in fact I am of the opinion that men should take off hats indoors.

Oh he didn’t actually wear it. Before anyone asks I have no idea why he didn’t leave it in his car. I was too focused on other matters to wonder too much about it. Let alone bother to ask.

 

[Annabelle_Marie]

I see nothing wrong with jeans…clean dark not low cut jeans. They are still allowed at St. Peters.

As far as modesty…as some once said…“it’s great to see you at Mass…we just don’t want to see so much of you”

 

[VeronicaAnne]

Modest.

Clean if you can.

Shoes or sandals if you got 'em.

Has nothing at all to do with what I’d wear to meet some politician, high-ranking or otherwise.

Jesus looks at me 24 / 7 / 365. He knows EXACTLY where I “am” when it comes to my choices for what I wear to Mass… and why. Even better than I could ever know, deep down, myself.

I don’t dress to give a message to anybody else there for what I’m bringing to offer to Him at the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.

 

[Rich_Olszewski]

Has nothing at all to do with what I’d wear to meet some politician, high-ranking or otherwise.

Why not? When I have to appear in court, I always wear a suit and tie and dress shoes. Now, I know that Jesus will understand if I come to Mass wearing wife-beaters, low-slung cut-off jeans showing part of the crack, and sneakers, but why is He to be the one dishonored while some traffic court judge is to be given greater respect?

I know this much. 40 years ago, a thread like this one would never appear anywhere.