I heard about the following on Colin Donovan’s show on EWTN’s Open Line.
On November 18, 1998, the Latin Rite de iure members of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops approved complementary legislation for canon 284 of the Code of Canon Law for the Latin Rite dioceses of the United States.
The action was granted recognitio by the Congregation for Bishops in accord with article 82 of the Apostolic Constitution Pastor Bonus and issued by decree of the Congregation for Bishops signed by His Eminence Lucas Cardinal Moreira Neves, Prefect, and His Excellency Most Reverend Franciscus Monterisi, Secretary, and dated September 29, 1999.
Complementary Norm: The National Conference of Catholic Bishops, in accord with the prescriptions of canon 284, hereby decrees that without prejudice to the provisions of canon 288, clerics are to dress in conformity with their sacred calling.
In liturgical rites, clerics shall wear the vesture prescribed in the proper liturgical books. Outside liturgical functions, a black suit and Roman collar are the usual attire for priests. The use of the cassock is at the discretion of the cleric.
In the case of religious clerics, the determinations of their proper institutes or societies are to be observed with regard to wearing the religious habit.
As President of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops, I hereby decree that the effective date of this decree for all the Latin Rite dioceses in the United States will be December 1, 1999.
Given at the offices of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops in Washington, DC, on November 1, 1999. [USCCB]
This applies to all diocesan priests. Priests of religious orders come under the norm for their specific order. Would someone tell Fr. Richard P. McBrien that it is now after Nov 1, 1999.
You can listen/download past shows of EWTN’s Open Line here. They rotate hosts from Monday through Friday with John Martignoni, Barbara McGuigan, Fr. Mitch Pacwa, S.J, Marcus Grodi, and Colin Donovan. Hopefully one day they will podcast the shows.
Update: A reader informs me that EWTN does have a podcast which you can subscribe to with http://www.ewtn.com/rss/RSS_daily_av.xml. The feed subscribes you to the daily homily, Open Line, The Journey Home, Sunday Night Live (Fr. Groeschel), EWTN Live, and Mother Angelica Classic. Though I guess I will still complain that they need to have specific feeds for the programs you want instead of one giant feed.
Update: One of my readers got a reply from Fr. McBrien on the subject.
It is the custom for most priests teaching in Catholic colleges and universities not to wear the clerical uniform in academic settings. That was the case at Boston College, where I taught until 1980, and it is also the case here at Notre Dame. For the most part, the only priests who wear their Roman collars during the course of the day are the president of the university and other officers of the university, such as the Vice President for Student Affairs. As you may know, the Roman collar is simply a custom that is of recent historical origin. If you were to examine photographs from the early history of the United States, you would see not only priests but bishops in secular dress, not Roman collars. I do wear the clerical uniform at liturgical functions and whenever requested, as, for example, when I appear on television.
Well not exactly surprising in his answer. Typical McBrien some alleged custom overrides Canon 284 and the norms of the USCCB. I wonder what his excuse will be now that more and more Notre Dame priests are back to wearing their clerical clothes under the leadership of their new president.
17 comments
Yes, but do we really want McBrien publicly identifying himself as a Catholic priest and defiling clerical attire? But, O what a sight it’d be to see McBrien in a cassock and cloak!
I wish they would podcast. That would be nice.
You can get the equivalent of a podcost by downloading the file and converting it to Mp3. There are a few free and several inexpensive converters out there. Last Christmas an tiny Mp3 player was on my wish list – not for music, for Catholic Answers!
I think I should tape this to the door of the Jesuit residence. Since I arrived at Boston College, I have only seen one priest who wears his collar regularly. Unsurprisingly, he is a good, orthodox priest. The masses of plaid-shirted undercover Jesuits on the other hand…
there is podcast
http://www.ewtn.com/podcast/
http://origin.ewtn.com/podcast/index.asp is the URL to catch individual MP3/podcast files for EWTN shows, though you can only catch the most recent episode of each show and a monthly “classic collection”. Donovan’s show should still be there if it was last Friday.
Clerical Dress
The Curt Jester points to a rather interesting decree from the USCCB on clerical garb. Oddly enough, I’ve noticed more priests back home out of clerical dress since that was published in 1999 than I can ever remember before that….
I too have heard this (McBrien’s) argument put forth by academics. Usually, however they appeal to the European custom (black suit, white shirt, black tie ala Herr Professor Doktor Ratzinger) My opinion is that such does not hold water (even for academics) given the canon and the policy of the USCCB, but then what do I know. Come to think of it, a few years ago at Mundelein, word came down from His Eminence that all academic faculty were obliged to wear clerical dress in the classroom!
Nevertheless, too many parish priests follow the lead of these academics (even though their circumstances clearly require clerical dress) It is true that the habit does NOT make the monk, (clothes don’t make the man) BUT, the wearing of clerical attire does have its benefits in helping a man form himself and present himself as a priest (not merely as a some sort of professional)
Oops! Correction:
Word came down from His Eminence that all PRIESTS on the academic faculty were obliged to wear clerical dress in the classroom. Cardinal George did not require the lay faculty to dress like priests! Sorry!
Actually, I prefer that priests such as Fr. McBrien wear secular garb. It’s an outward sign that all may not be completely orthodox under that particular belfry. Not a perfect signalling system, but fairly reliable.
Father McBrien is a priest of the diocese of Hartford.
Jesuits and priests of the Holy Cross are special cases as they belong to religious orders that are without habits, so they are as strict or as lax as other priests. I imagine that this has quite a lot to do with “academic settings;” similarly, I imagine they scare up cassocks when they go to Rome.
If you were to examine photographs from the early history of the United States, you would see not only priests but bishops in secular dress, not Roman collars.
Very interesting that Father thinks that we are still living on the frontier. Perhaps he is, perhaps he is. Others might not look to “early” American photographs [we can overlook the oxymoron for the moment] to document universal and traditional Catholic Church customs.
While we are looking at photographs, how about Blessed Miguel Pro’s? Many Mexican priests died for wearing a collar. Bl. Miguel only took his off precisely so that he could administer the sacraments under dangerous conditions. In fact, clerical garb was illegal in Mexico until about twenty (?) years ago; maybe because it means something?
I do wear the clerical uniform at liturgical functions and whenever requested, as, for example, when I appear on television.
It is absolutely incorrect to display the clerical uniform [sic] at liturgical functions [e.g., Holy Mass] in which the priest wears an alb. (I find it hard to picture Father McBrien in choir dress — cassock and surplice — at a liturgy.) No part of the priest’s street clothes should show, including and most obviously the collar. That is what the amice (or “cassock-alb” or the Velcro alb) is for.
Being “requested” to wear clerical clothing by canon law and a USCCB directive is not so important as a television appearance?
Maybe Father could have just summed this all up by saying “I don’t wear those clothes because they are not cool.”
he’s such a loser.
He wears a collar on television so he will LOOK like an orthodox Catholic priest, which of course, he isn’t. That way, with his credentials of being a Notre Dame “scholar,” people who don’t know any better will be more inclined to believe what he says.
My guess is he doesn’t wear clerics because they chaffe him.
While I am a firm proponant of the wearing of clerical attire at all time (except for the reasonable jogging attire etc. exception), I would like to point out the long-standing tradition of having academic priests wear academic attire while in the classroom.
2 examples LOVELY:
http://img.web.de/c/00/58/2B/3E.420
http://news.bbc.co.uk/media/images/41053000/jpg/_41053305_bw_ap.jpg
Outside of the classroom, however, clericals would seem to be far more appropriate.
“…the Roman collar is simply a custom…”
I thought it was a sign.
I think Fr. McBrian’s collar has been worn maybe a bit too tight over the years which would explain his problems now. He finally has oxygen to his brain and is on a blood drunk. He can’t help him self for acting and thinking like a …..pin head.
Comments are closed.