Where did the cassock go?

[bobrec]

It really, really bothers our parishioners when we have ecumenical services and all the Protestant ministers are wearing clericals and our pastor is in slacks and a polo shirt.

Ecumenical services? In a Catholic church?

 

[Moscati]

Our pastor goes the all-black with a collar route anytime he’s going to be in public–he says everyone should be able to tell he’s a priest when they see him (and that he’s heard many an on-the-spot confession because of it . . .) I have seen him wearing regular casual clothes like a sweater and khakis when he’s in his office working on a sermon or paperwork.

The priest at the parish down the road wears a cassock full-time.

I overheard someone mention to our sacristan that the altar servers would look better in cassock and surplice, and he replied that they were ridiculously expensive compared to albs they wear now, and the parish couldn’t afford them. I wonder if part of the reason is that cassocks are more expensive than other types of clothes for priests?

 

[The_Reginator]

The priests at the F.S.S.P. parish I try to get to a few times a year wear cassocks.
The first two years we were there we attended the parish picnics.

We’d even see them playing baseball in their black cassocks!

 

[PacoG]

Our priests do!! God bless them all!!

Our pastor’s 30th anniversary celebration

~Liza

Since you’re from the Archdiocese of Detriot: thanks for Bishop Flores. He’s been amazing in his first five months in the Diocese of Brownsville.

 

[cecilia97]

So the title of this thread states the question quite obviously. I’ve always wondered about this, as I have seen cassocks worn by priests in other countries that I’ve been to, but here in America I never see it happen. I always see priests wearing what is basically a suit with the roman collar. How did this change happen? Why did priests in America cease to wear the cassock? Does anyone know of priests who still wear it?

It’s alive and well with several priests I know, all of whom offer the OF Mass…both diocesan and religious priests. Thanks be to God! It’s a nice practice, IMHO.

 

[PacoG]

When I was growing up in the late 70s, our then-pastor (a diocesean priest) wore a white cassock-alb with his biretta. He’d visit classes at the parish school dressed like that most of the time when he was on his way to and from mass. At times, he’d wear his black cassock and his biretta. Most of the rest of the time, he wore his clericals.

Our current pastor (also a diocesean priest) wears his clericals. I don’t think I have ever seen him dressed in anything other than clericals. Our assistant pastor (a Franciscan), wears his habit.

We kind of have a strange situation with a secular priest as pastor and an order priest (an OFM) as our part time assistant pastor. Is this blending unheard of?

 

[cecilia97]

The Miles Christi priests still do

mileschristi.org/

I must admit I think of them as “my” priests, I can’t help it.

 

[onmyknees]

I know of four parish pastors in our dioceses that will wear a cassock. I wish all the priests would wear them. They are beautiful!

 

[boatbearer]

Our pastor goes the all-black with a collar route anytime he’s going to be in public–he says everyone should be able to tell he’s a priest when they see him (and that he’s heard many an on-the-spot confession because of it . . .) I have seen him wearing regular casual clothes like a sweater and khakis when he’s in his office working on a sermon or paperwork.

The priest at the parish down the road wears a cassock full-time.

I overheard someone mention to our sacristan that the altar servers would look better in cassock and surplice, and he replied that they were ridiculously expensive compared to albs they wear now, and the parish couldn’t afford them. I wonder if part of the reason is that cassocks are more expensive than other types of clothes for priests?

They are not expensive for servers.

 

[5Loaves]

The ICRSS priest in this diocese always wears a cassock and his gallero, or whatever their hat is called. Our Easter Catholic priests and deacons always wear their riassa.

I’d be happy if the local Latin Church clergy would wear the basic black shirt and “Roman” collar. I unashamedly thank any Latin priest I see wearing his clerics. I think priests being invisible in daily life has lessened the number of young men drawn to vocations in the priesthood. I was told that our local Dominican deacons and priests were asked to not wear their cassocks around town and to classes at the local consortium of seminaries/schools of religion although I occasionally see them around town in their cassocks so maybe that was a short lived request.

There is no question in my mind that clerical garb is an instrument of evangelization and catechesis. No time is this more clear than when our Eastern priests, priest monks, deacons are present at an event. All kinds of questions buzz around the crowd stimulated entirely by people seeing the distinctive garb of Eastern deacons and priests. I’m sure the same must be true when the ICRSS priest is present.

 

[MarkThompson]

The ICRSS priest in this diocese always wears a cassock and his gallero, or whatever their hat is called. Our Easter Catholic priests and deacons always wear their riassa.

The galero is a broad-brimmed cardinal’s hat no longer, I think, permitted to be worn at all. You’re thinking of either the saturno or the biretta.

Galero:

http://www.catholic-ew.org.uk/var/c...-eng-GB/cardinal_pell_newman_galero_275px.jpg

Saturno:

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3442/3387639367_86389a07fb.jpg

Biretta:

https://hcs.fsspx.org/en

 

[Phemie]

Ecumenical services? In a Catholic church?

During the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity and for the World Day of Prayer on the 1st Friday in March we take turns hosting services.

Then there are community specific occasions like our recent “Flower Service” at the community cemetery.

 

[Phemie]

I overheard someone mention to our sacristan that the altar servers would look better in cassock and surplice, and he replied that they were ridiculously expensive compared to albs they wear now, and the parish couldn’t afford them. I wonder if part of the reason is that cassocks are more expensive than other types of clothes for priests?

I think that would depend on how clothes conscious the priest is. Some are happy with two outfits but most I know have a rather extensive wardrobe. I would think a couple of cassocks would be cheaper – don’t have to worry about wearing the same clothes you wore yesterday.

 

[Phemie]

We kind of have a strange situation with a secular priest as pastor and an order priest (an OFM) as our part time assistant pastor. Is this blending unheard of?

No, not unheard of.

Most priests in our part of the diocese are religious but they have sometimes been paired with secular priests “on loan” from other dioceses. That’s how it was in this parish when I arrived 13 years ago: religious pastor, secular assistant.

 

[The_Old_Medic]

Priests have the option of wearing a Cassock if they choose to do so, and if their Bishop allows the use of them. Religious Priests often wear a Cassock, if their community has one. A Franciscan’s robes are just a form of a cassock, as an example.

Do you wear knee breeches, and a tri-cornered hat? After all, that was the customary garment when the US was founded (in Europe as well as the America’s), so why not wear it today?

Just as lay clothing has fashions, so does religious clothing. Many of the Communities of Nuns had Habits that were based upon the common clothing worn at the time they were founded. But, just as lay people do not wear the dress of the middle ages, why on earth do we expect Priests, Nuns and other religious to do so?

They should however, wear clothing, or some form of attachment, that clearly identifies them as religious. To just wear lay clothing, unless “off duty”, is not allowed.