From a deacon… QUAERITUR: Could you recommend where to look to find info on, or yourself explain, the intricacies of wearing a cassock? I’m am ordering one and basically going in blind. I know there is a collar worn underneath … Read More →
From a reader… QUAERITUR: In the United States, I imagine you would agree, it is not uncommon to see priests in very casual attire. Under what circumstances (if any) would the traditional modus operandi allow for dressing down (i.e. not … Read More →
Throughout history, anti-Catholicism and anti-clericalism has specifically targeted the cassock for a great share of its fear and hatred. In some places the cassock could get you killed. Today as the Amazon Synod opens – during which we fully expect … Read More →
When I was in Rome a few days ago, I asked one of the great guys at Gammarelli to give me a refresher lesson in how to fold a cassock well, to minimize wrinkles when packing. I posted another video … Read More →
From a reader: I wanted to let you know of something beautiful that happened just before my mother Alice passed away three weeks ago. [Let us all pray for Alice and her family. “Eternal rest grant…”] Suffice it to say … Read More →
From a reader… QUAERITUR: Is the cassock required for a priest to wear a cassock under his vestments when celebrating the Extraordinary Form Mass? I did not think so, and I know other priests who celebrate the 1962 Mass without it, … Read More →
Use of the cassock. In England… and in Wales?… it was illegal to wear the cassock in public. Perhaps it still is. I believe there is a tale told that Queen Elizabeth paid the fine for John Paul II. Se non è … Read More →
We are watching closely the development of a possible – indeed increasingly likely – Personal Prelature for the SSPX. Meanwhile, in a communication from the SSPX today we read that for Candlemas new seminarians received were tonsured and received their … Read More →
From a priest… QUAERITUR: I am trying to find an answer to the question of whether a bishop can prohibit a priest from wearing the cassock. Below is the pertinent section from the Directory for the Ministry and Life of … Read More →
Was there a good point made in the sermon you heard during your Mass for your Sunday obligation? Let us know. For my part – on this 19th Sunday after Pentecost -taking my cue from the Epistle and from the Lord’s parable … Read More →
During my last trip to Rome (thanks, donors), I had business at the famous clerical shop Gammarelli. I ask one of the helpful men at the shop to demonstrate how properly to fold a cassock. This is a useful … Read More →
From a reader… QUAERITUR: Our diocesan liturgical director is trying to prevent parishes from having altar servers wear cassocks and surplices, claiming they’re “clerical garb,” so lay people can’t wear them. Is his claim legitimate? Is there any official statement … Read More →
From a reader… I was wondering if any secular/diocesan priest is allowed to wear a black mozzetta as part of their choir dress? I have seen pictures of some priests wearing a black mozzetta such as the Canons Regular of … Read More →
From a priest: A priest in the olden days was permitted to wear such a shoulder cape (look at pics of St Don Bosco – [A founder of a religious order]) and it was built together as a simar cassock, … Read More →
A reader sent me a a link to a video trailer for a Spanish language documentary about the cassock. Yes, the cassock. While the video struck me as being perhaps a little saccharin. I’ll give them a pass for being … Read More →
From a reader: I am wondering why most modern bishops just wear a clerical suit? Why do they very rarely wear the cassock with the proper color trim? We almost never see eastern rite or even the orthodox out in … Read More →
From a reader… QUAERITUR: While vesting for Mass, a member of the clergy (at least in the EF; the priests I know do it for OF too) will say a set of prayers as he is putting the different vestments … Read More →
From a reader… QUAERITUR: Father, Am I correct in saying that Cassock & Surplice is male attire and that girls should NOT wear it? And if this is the case why do people let it happen? I am taking over … Read More →
From a priest reader: I recently spoke with the permanent deacon in our parish after he saw me hanging up my cassock after hearing confessions. He asked me, is the cassock again being proposed as normal attire for priests in the seminary? … Read More →
From a reader: In my diocese there are a small number of seminarians who wish to wear their cassock after their first year of study at the seminary. They have approached the bishop and rector about doing so, but both have refused to … Read More →
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“This blog is like a fusion of the Baroque ‘salon’ with its well-tuned harpsichord around which polite society gathered for entertainment and edification and, on the other hand, a Wild West “saloon” with its out-of-tune piano and swinging doors, where everyone has a gun and something to say. Nevertheless, we try to point our discussions back to what it is to be Catholic in this increasingly difficult age, to love God, and how to get to heaven.” – Fr. Z
I'm finishing up a batch of Mass intentions right now. I'll have room in my register for more while I am in Rome. Also, I regularly say Mass for my regular benefactors and special Roman Sojourn Donors. HERE for the form I use.
TheCavalierHatherly on 16 November – St. Gertrude and the Purgatory Prayer: “Also, the “days” promised in the old indulgence decrees weren’t “days in purgatory” but rather “penitential day,” refering to the…”
EAW on USA Day 2 – Scratching that itch: “Marching may not usually be sailors’ strongest suit, but never in my life have I seen it done so poorly.…”
BeatifyStickler on Daily Rome Shot 1175: Where I was: “Delusional or just plain lying. This scenario is more likely dozens of people will remember that it happened and ask…”
TheCavalierHatherly on Daily Rome Shot 1175: Where I was: ““one of the most historic moments in their lives, for it has redirected the focus of where the church is…”
Everyone, work to get this into your parish bulletins and diocesan papers.
The most evident mark of God’s anger and the most terrible castigation He can inflict upon the world are manifested when He permits His people to fall into the hands of clerics who are priests more in name than in deed, priests who practice the cruelty of ravening wolves rather than the charity and affection of devoted shepherds.
St. John Eudes
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“Until the Lord be pleased to settle, through the instrumentality of the princes of the Church and the lawful ministers of His justice, the trouble aroused by the pride of a few and the ignorance of some others, let us with the help of God endeavor with calm and humble patience to render love for hatred, to avoid disputes with the silly, to keep to the truth and not fight with the weapons of falsehood, and to beg of God at all times that in all our thoughts and desires, in all our words and actions, He may hold the first place who calls Himself the origin of all things.”
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“He [Satan] will set up a counter-Church which will be the ape of the Church because, he the devil, is the ape of God. It will have all the notes and characteristics of the Church, but in reverse and emptied of its divine content. It will be a mystical body of the anti-Christ that will in all externals resemble the mystical body of Christ. In desperate need for God, whom he nevertheless refuses to adore, modern man in his loneliness and frustration will hunger more and more for membership in a community that will give him enlargement of purpose, but at the cost of losing himself in some vague collectivity.”
“Who is going to save our Church? Not our bishops, not our priests and religious. It is up to you, the people. You have the minds, the eyes, and the ears to save the Church. Your mission is to see that your priests act like priests, your bishops act like bishops.”
“The modern habit of doing ceremonial things unceremoniously is no proof of humility; rather it proves the offender's inability to forget himself in the rite, and his readiness to spoil for every one else the proper pleasure of ritual.”
- C.S. Lewis
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As for Latin…
"But if, in any layman who is indeed imbued with literature, ignorance of the Latin language, which we can truly call the 'catholic' language, indicates a certain sluggishness in his love toward the Church, how much more fitting it is that each and every cleric should be adequately practiced and skilled in that language!" - Pius XI
"Let us realize that this remark of Cicero (Brutus 37, 140) can be in a certain way referred to [young lay people]: 'It is not so much a matter of distinction to know Latin as it is disgraceful not to know it.'" - St. John Paul II
Grant unto thy Church, we beseech Thee, O merciful God, that She, being gathered together by the Holy Ghost, may be in no wise troubled by attack from her foes. O God, who by sin art offended and by penance pacified, mercifully regard the prayers of Thy people making supplication unto Thee,and turn away the scourges of Thine anger which we deserve for our sins. Almighty and Everlasting God, in whose Hand are the power and the government of every realm: look down upon and help the Christian people that the heathen nations who trust in the fierceness of their own might may be crushed by the power of thine Arm. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Thy Son, who liveth and reigneth with Thee in the unity of the Holy Ghost, God, world without end. R. Amen.