Thoughts on collarless Priests?

  • Thread starter Thread starter MiserereMei25
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It’s funny you should mention ski slope, becuase I’ve seen a video of a priest skiing in a cassock.
 
I don’t know.

You’re the one advocating for priests to always wear the collar, not me.
 
semper_catholicus said:
It’s funny you should mention ski slope, becuase I’ve seen a video of a priest skiing in a cassock.
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But it is a novelty. I doubt that priest was out for a full day of skiing. Pope John Paul II went skiing in ski clothes, dressed appropriately for the weather and activity, as do the vast majority of priests who ski. You can find pictures of him skiing in a cassock, but it was always for some sort of public event, a showing for the media. If he was just out on vacation with some friends, he was not usually in clerical clothing.
 
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That, and black does not mean they are “dead to the world” as somebody said
as they would not be able to do ministry or anything!
 
PetraG said:
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babochka:
I mentioned other possibilities in my previous post: going for a morning jog, going to the gym, on the golf course, on a ski slope, working as a volunteer firefighter, helping with rescue efforts in the middle of a flood…
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I don’t think a priest would usually wear a Roman collar in places where a layman wouldn’t wear business attire. (It is a bit tight around the neck for sports…)
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Precisely. Yet some seem to think they should… or not engage in such activities at all?

I am much more comfortable with priests wearing clerical clothing, for all the reasons mentioned in this thread. Some people seem to want to carry it to an extreme and believe there is never any reason for a priest not to be instantly recognizable as such.
 
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The black does mean dead to worldly pleasures. Father Simkon Spencer on Catholic radio gave a short talk on priestly and religious habits
 
0Scarlett_nidiyilii said:
Certain jobs are public and visible.
I like to know who’s around me.
For a non-clerical example, I like to know who the policemen are, in case I would need assistance. The uniform is a type of non-verbal communication.
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As for the example that the police are always in uniform, we also know that some sworn police officers do not wear patrol uniforms to work. Detectives keep their badges with them, but many actually choose to wear suits and ties or other business attire even while on the clock.

There are a few men who wear a suit and a tie everywhere they go. If they can’t do it in a suit and tie, they just don’t do it. They are free to make that choice. The fact that they do does not imply that everyone who can do so ought to do so. (I think all the men here agree with that, regardless of how much their wives and mothers like their looks in a suit and tie.)

I’d say that normally a priest will always wear a Roman collar or his religious community’s habit as his “business” or “formal” dress; he wouldn’t wear layman’s suit and tie, instead. As for what he wears the rest of the time, like a police officer he will choose the dress that he and his superiors think is the most appropriate for him to do his duty. If he’s reaching out to people who are wary of the Roman collar (as some are wary of police uniforms), then he may wear a layman’s street clothes, instead. (I would point out that police officers doing outreach to at-risk youth often do this as a matter of course.) The only thing that most priests would find inappropriate is if he were to dress in a way that identifies with ostentatious wealth. Most priests would say it is most appropriate to either dress in “best” clothing that clearly shows his clerical state or else to dress as a well-kept layperson of typical (or lower) means. Religious sisters, likewise, tend to dress in either distinctive garb or choose to dress in a way that is well-kept but not costly or eccentric.

As many others have pointed out, this is the long-standing sense of bishops and religious orders around the world. Priests ought not go out looking as if they were among those materially fortunate enough to belong to the privileged class, but other than that, there are situations where dressing as the laypeople do is not only fine but more in keeping with the work their religious community has sent them out to do. That work can include distinctive clothing rather than merely modest clothing, but that is up to the judgment of the bishop or the order.

As for laypersons, I don’t think it harms us to accept whatever clothing a priest or religious chooses to wear. Provided that it is modest in both coverage and style and the person is well-kept, it is according to precedent for their state and therefore outside our jurisdiction to quibble with it.
 
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“Black symbolizes death” is applicable for Western countries. White and red each symbolize death in some other cultures.
 
So I guees the priests in the tropics to include bishops and the pope in the Vatican are not dead to such things…
 
Yes which is why some cultures priests wear white, which is also practical for climate as well.
 
They wear white in those cultures because of climate and that the white still symbolizes purity and a sort of dying to the self and rising with christ
 
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Actually I never stated that they should always wear the collar. Obviously disguising oneself is a good reason not to wear one. Also if a priest went swimming i wouldn’t expect him to wear one. I just do think that a priest should wear a collar as much as humanely possible unless it really is preventing him from doing something.
But as we can see, a priest can run an obstacle course and use monkey bars in a collar and shorts.
 
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MiserereMei25 said:
I just do think that a priest should wear a collar as much as humanely possible unless it really is preventing him from doing something.
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“As much as humanly possible” is a very high standard.
MiserereMei25 said:
Also if a priest went swimming i wouldn’t expect him to wear one.
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They’ll be relieved to hear that.
MiserereMei25 said:
But as we can see, a priest can run an obstacle course and use monkey bars in a collar and shorts.
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That doesn’t mean it is recommended.
 
So I asked for people’s opions, not their frustration over my own opinion. I really do want to discuss this with people and not be judged for my view as I will not judge your view.

I will leave this discussion and will end with this.

I do admire our priest because he purposely wears his collar to everything. But he always wears his collar during the week and out at public and to sporting events and ect. He does it purposely because it does bring hope to people and because he has been able to use it a great deal to evangelize. It has only benefitted him and our community.
 
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I am happy that your priest has had positive reactions.
I have a priest friend who has not been so lucky. He has been harassed, called a rapist and been generally disrespected in public when wearing clerics.

I think it’s a fine line between what is good for the public and what is safe for the priest. Sadly, we must think of this.
 
sadly he is no longer at our parish but you can look him upoYouTube. He has a segment called Priest with a Mic and he travels and foes to LA a few times and stands in the corner and asks random passerbys question and people come up to him with questions or frustrations with the church.
 
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