Make a habit of wearing your habit

Vatican memo aims to boost priestly identity

Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the Vatican secretary of state, left, smiles before Mass in St. Peter's Basilica. CNS photo / Stefano Rellandini, Reuters.

Catholic News Agency reports that, in an effort to promote priestly identity, the Vatican Secretary of State has issued a letter asking clerics and religious at the Vatican to dress as befits their identity as priests conformed to Christ.

Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone said in an Oct. 15 letter, written at Pope Benedict XVI's bidding, that it is a "time in which everyone is specially called to renew his awareness of and consistency with his own identity." It recalls a 1982 letter of Pope John Paul II to his vicar general encouraging him to "study opportune initiatives destined to foster the use of ecclesiastical and religious dress."

This new memo from the Secretary of State goes hand in hand with a 1994 document on the ministry and life of priests from the Congregation for Clergy. The congregation's document said that in a "secularised and materialistic society ... it is particularly important that the community be able to recognise the priest, man of God and dispenser of his mysteries, by his attire as well, which is an unequivocal sign of his dedication and his identity as a public minister."

For full story see The B.C. Catholic website.