Cleansing Fire

Defending Truth and Tradition in the Roman Catholic Church

For the Record . . .

April 19th, 2011, Promulgated by Gen

. . . diversity is not a liturgical color.

A massive Nod of the Miter to Fr. Grondz who devoted his own time, talent, and treasure to point out how ridiculous this pattern is. (For the record, he made these as a joke, and not for actual liturgical use. I would hope his cassock and biretta would betray that to the passer-by.)

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9 Responses to “For the Record . . .”

  1. Scott W. says:

    On the off chance you haven’t heard yet: Bad Vestments blog.

  2. Gen says:

    You don’t need to delve into Canon Law for everything. Sometimes it’s just obvious. Vestments are worn at Mass and other liturgical services. The colors used by the Church throughout the year are red, green, purple, black, white/gold/cream, rose, and, in some places, blue. The color of the vestments reflects the Church’s focus for that particular time, i.e. red for the blood of Christ and the martyrs or the tongues of fire at Pentecost, black for death, purple for penitential times, white for rebirth, etc.

    I have yet to figure out what time of the year “Ethnic Children” fits.

  3. Dr. K says:

    Or rainbow.

  4. Mike says:

    Anon. 11:25,

    You won’t find that in Canon Law, but it the General Instruction of the Roman Missal:

    344. It is fitting that the beauty and nobility of each vestment derive not from abundance of overly lavish ornamentation, but rather from the material that is used and from the design. Ornamentation on vestments should, moreover, consist of figures, that is, of images or symbols, that evoke sacred use, avoiding thereby anything unbecoming.

    345. The purpose of a variety in the color of the sacred vestments is to give effective expression even outwardly to the specific character of the mysteries of faith being celebrated and to a sense of Christian life’s passage through the course of the liturgical year.

    346. As to the color of sacred vestments, the traditional usage is to be retained: namely,

    1. White is used in the Offices and Masses during the Easter and Christmas seasons; also on celebrations of the Lord other than of his Passion, of the Blessed Virgin Mary, of the Holy Angels, and of Saints who were not Martyrs; on the Solemnities of All Saints (1 November) and of the Nativity of Saint John the Baptist (24 June); and on the Feasts of Saint John the Evangelist (27 December), of the Chair of Saint Peter (22 February), and of the Conversion of Saint Paul (25 January).
    2. Red is used on Palm Sunday of the Lord’s Passion and on Good Friday, on Pentecost Sunday, on celebrations of the Lord’s Passion, on the feasts of the Apostles and Evangelists, and on celebrations of Martyr Saints.
    3. Green is used in the Offices and Masses of Ordinary Time.
    4. Violet or purple is used in Advent and of Lent. It may also be worn in Offices and Masses for the Dead (cf. below).
    5. Besides violet, white or black vestments may be worn at funeral services and at other Offices and Masses for the Dead in the Dioceses of the United States of America.
    6. Rose may be used, where it is the practice, on Gaudete Sunday (Third Sunday of Advent) and on Laetare Sunday (Fourth Sunday of Lent).
    7. On more solemn days, sacred vestments may be used that are festive, that is, more precious, even if not of the color of the day.
    8. Gold or silver colored vestments may be worn on more solemn occasions in the dioceses of the United States of America.

    I don’t see how it’s possible to so distort the clear meaning of the above so as to include “Ethnic Children,” “Rainbow” and other, similar nonsense.

  5. Ink says:

    It seems sorta redundant for the priest to try to be the whole congregation at once. I mean, you don’t need to wear “diversity.” Just look around. It should be present.

  6. Bernie says:

    Anonymous @ 11:25

    Here is a challenge. Forget Canon Law and any other official documents that might address this issue. Assume there aren’t any. Now, do some research and see if you can find any pictures of Roman Catholic vestments that would demonstrate a tradition in the church of the kind of design that is pictured in the post. Obviously, by ‘tradition’ is not meant contemporary. So, let’s limit your search to the first 1900 – 1950 years of Christianity. You are looking for something that approximates the concept expressed in the post that creates an approxiamately similar overall visual impact.

    I have not researched this, myself, so there might be something out there. You might surprise me, but I can’t think of anything off the top of my head.

    Of, course, if you have no use for tradition then you will probably find this challenge pointless.

  7. Bernie says:

    Anonymous @ 2:27:
    Sorry.
    I was just helping to circle the wagons because I thought that’s what we were doing! Seriously though, I like to look to tradition for answers to such questions (as well as official documents).
    Change and growth in different directions has been part of our tradition but it usually real growth is always built upon, or is an outgrowth of, tradition.
    I think many people in positions of authority in the Church today reject tradition as something dead and irrelevant to life today. To such people, an appeal to tradition is, of course, useless.
    I’m sorry if I misinterpreted your question.

  8. Deborah Victory says:

    I recently made a priest’s stole from my wedding dress in honor of my son’s marriage. The priest is the bride’s cousin and so it is an appropriate gift. I’d like to share a photo with you but do not know how to load it onto your system. If anyone would like to see it or any of the vestments I have made, you can e mail me at dvictory@roadrunner.com.

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