I regularly drop in on the Bad Vestments Blog, dedicated to ridiculing dreadful tat. But you can have tat that's completely respectable and it can still go wrong.
This isn't from Bad Vestments, but from The New Liturgical Movement, depicting a Mass as part of a recent Latin liturgical conference at Detroit. We'll overlook the oversize birettas (this coming from someone who's something of a fan of the biretta) and concentrate on the bishop. It is (apparently) perfectly acceptable for the bishop to wear a dalmatic in the colour of the day, green in this case, and then a gold chasuble for a festal occasion over it. Acceptable according to the rules - but visually awful. What on earth is whoever's planning this Mass thinking? There are times when meticulous observation of the rules undermines they very purpose of the rules, in this case to ensure a dignified and beautiful celebration of the sacred liturgy. Is it too much of me to suggest you can see this lack of perspective operating in other areas of the Roman Church's life at the moment?
I was more disturbed by the chap draped in a net curtain!
ReplyDeleteYes, I don't do lace, can't see the appeal. The RCs do seem better able to carry it off than Anglo-Catholics, probably because they're usually less physically weird. But in some quarters how much of a perfectly acceptable liturgical garment you can convert into lace is a matter of pride (or perhaps Pride).
ReplyDeleteHe looks rather like a mason doesn't he?
ReplyDelete