Fascias & Grown-Up Servers
The time has come for my superannuated cassock to be replaced...
In our parishes (Roman) the smaller Minions of the Sacristy wear servers cassocks but mine was given to me many years ago by a priest, who found it in a cupboard and is a rather more upmarket job, so I'm looking at replacing it with something similarly comfortable.
One reaches an age and stature where a larger size servers cassock looks a little ill-fitting!
Now, the other grown-up server at the other end of the parish also has a proper cassock, but wanders around with a black fascia, which I do not. Our PP seems not to notice it's use, but that's not quite a canonical decision...
I'm interested in both the custom in the Italian Mission regarding the wearing of the facia by (Grown-Up) servers, and also in concrete legislation either way regarding it's use.
Is it part of the furniture of a cassock in general? Or does it belong more to the form of cassock that may be worn by secular clergy in England & Wales? Or neither of those things?
Is it a case of the PP not objecting to the other chap taking it upon himself to wear one (in which case I would abstain when purchasing a new cassock, being a by-the-book sort of chap) or am I free to wear one, or not, as I choose?
Thanks in advance!
In our parishes (Roman) the smaller Minions of the Sacristy wear servers cassocks but mine was given to me many years ago by a priest, who found it in a cupboard and is a rather more upmarket job, so I'm looking at replacing it with something similarly comfortable.
One reaches an age and stature where a larger size servers cassock looks a little ill-fitting!
Now, the other grown-up server at the other end of the parish also has a proper cassock, but wanders around with a black fascia, which I do not. Our PP seems not to notice it's use, but that's not quite a canonical decision...
I'm interested in both the custom in the Italian Mission regarding the wearing of the facia by (Grown-Up) servers, and also in concrete legislation either way regarding it's use.
Is it part of the furniture of a cassock in general? Or does it belong more to the form of cassock that may be worn by secular clergy in England & Wales? Or neither of those things?
Is it a case of the PP not objecting to the other chap taking it upon himself to wear one (in which case I would abstain when purchasing a new cassock, being a by-the-book sort of chap) or am I free to wear one, or not, as I choose?
Thanks in advance!
Comments
https://forums.catholic.com/t/may-an-mc-wear-a-fascia/243264/2
The entire order of the universe depends on these rules being observed, of course!
Or, even more importantly, the prevention of tears from the baby Jesus and his most blessed mother.
But there are degrees of choir dress - ask anyone who is entitled to wear purple.
I've worn purple, when I lived in our cathedral's parish. Colour/Piping is a ranking thing and the rules on that are more readily available. A purple cassock isn't a different thing, it's the same thing in purple. So, we can find regulations for various colours on facias in the same way we don't regs for colours on cassocks, but little or nothing for the plain black of either.
Dammit no ... but if ever you find it in a brown paper bag in a dark corner feel free to post it beyond 45 South
I suspect you're thinking of Fortescue and O'Connell - The Ceremonies of the Roman Rite Described which is the handbook for liturgical practice that harks back to pre-Vatican II days, and talks about everything you could ever think of doing in church.
@Northern_Sacristan Nainfa has all the regulations you could wish about colour, fabric, piping, what to do when you’re in mourning etc etc - though I don’t know if he is right. He mentioned cinctures of certain types being specially given for particular chapters - don’t know if that would be relevant to understanding the other guy’s choice of regalia.
(Shoulda checked that forum link earlier in the thread, the book I’ve linked is the one they’ve cited !)
I suspect it is probably only of archeological interest.
This seems to be in line with current legislation. shetlersites.com/clericaldress/
But it makes no mention of lay folk.
It’s where I originally found the citation of Nainfa.
Shouldn’t you be wearing an alb with a rope cincture anyway ?
[/tangent]
It'd a minefield, isn't it? We've had celibacy and jurisdiction quoted, and the problem that most descriptive rules are for Before the Changes, with amendments rarely clarifying what they're amending.
I understoood the Pellegrina to be a matter of jurisdiction, although the particular privileges of English secular clergy after 1850* muddy the waters there, but I recall reading that's why Pope Benedict no longer wears one, but then he also does not wear a facia (although his cassock has the loops for it)
*Wear what the pope wears but in black. But again no distinction between actual clergy and stand in clergy.
Wot Larks!
Thought we were discussing grown up altar boys, not popes ........
I do when acting as an innocent little altar boy or crucifer, the cincture's colour changing seasonally of course.
Kuruman, incidentally (to whom I am lawful wed) refuses to wear a cincture, as she maintains it makes her look pregnant, a status to which she has no desire to return.