www.byzcath.org Forums Faith & Christian Life Faith & Theology Archbishop Ranjith: Stole Over Chasuble!?

This is a question regarding Western liturgy, but please indulge me.

I came across this picture from the installation [asianews.it] of Archbishop Malcolm Ranjith [catholic-hierarchy.org] as the new Metropolitan Archbishop of Colombo, Sri Lanka:

[Linked Image]

So, my question is: Why are the Archbishop and the the two other Bishops wearing their stoles outside their chasubles? I thought that was wrong, and that the chasuble should be worn over the stole [usccb.org]? But the Archbishop has been Secretary of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments [vatican.va] for the last four years, so he should know about these things, shouldn't he? And how are we ever going to achieve communion between the Orthodox and Catholic Churches until the Latin Church gets her liturgy in order?

I'm puzzled.

This sadly is something I have seen recently - a priest who trained and was ordained in the 70s Celebrated a Mass I was at just after Raymond's death.

I asked a young Priest [ 3 years ordained ] about this and he could give no satisfactory answer.

That abuse was all the rage back in the early 70s here in Australia. Sort of like wearing ones underpants on top of the trousers. Very sad to see such sillness is in full swing after all these years. You get a glimpse of why it is so hard for the Church to deal with serious problems when you have such men in high places who dont even know how to dress themselves.

Dare I opine that we have more serious issues to be concerned with?

These are the signs of serious problems. The flags if you will. The tip of the iceberg even.

Agreed - could almost be summed up as " I'll do it MY way " instead of doing it the Church's way.

Some try and rationalise things like these as being due to 'pastoral sensitivity ' - but they are not

Slightly off track here. I could not help but notice the interesting comment in the sermon that Columbo was a diocese before the Portugese arrived on the island. I notice on the Hierarchy site the date given for Columbo becoming a diocese is Dec 1834. I believe the Portugese had long gone, as had the Dutch and the British had been in control of the area for some time before that date of 1834. I can't help wonder if by some chance the bishop is trying to suggest a link with a previous Church of the East diocese on the island.

A good way to show everyone you remember to change them that morning. And also very popular among the elementary school crowd that read the popular "Captain Underpants" books.

In Asia, it is very common to wear the stole over the chasuble. Oftentimes, the stole alone follows the liturgical color of the season, the chasuble remaining white. At times, the alb is no longer worn, and the chasuble is out on top of street clothes. Thank God that at least Archbishop Ranjith is wearing a prelatial alb.

The practice became de facto normative in the Philippines in the 1970's, and when Pope John Paul II visited the Philippines in 1981 our bishops openly concelebrated with him with colored stoles over white chasubles. Since large numbers of Chinese, Indian, Vietnamese and Sri Lankan priests are sent to Manila to study (since the education here is a lot less expensive than in Europe or America), the practice has spread to much of Asia.

The only explanation I know for the Asian and Philippine practice is that around 1970, the Vatican gave permission for the use of the "chasu-alb", a weird-looking garment that is shaped like a thin white chasuble, but with the sides sewn up rather than open. This vestment was allowed for use by concelebrants in Masses celebrated inside churches, and by the main celebrant and concelebrants in Masses outside of churches. Naturally, when the chasu-alb is used the stole is put on top of it. Eventually, as liturgical training became more and more sloppy and as priests and bishops forgot a lot of fine distinctions, the practice was transferred even to those cases where the priest / bishop wears a proper chasuble.

Vestments evolve. Most of what Romans consider "traditional" vestments can be traced back no further than the Renaissance or even the Baroque era. It was inevitable that, as the Latin Church expanded into new regions, variations, and even innovations would emerge in response to local conditions and pastoral requirements.

Even Byzantine vestments evolve (the horror, the horror!).

It's probably not something over which one should go to the stake.

Archbishop Ranjith is probably mostly concerned with peace and reconciliation in his country after 30 years of vicious civil war, so I guess he didn't chose these vestments himself.

Even so, we are talking about an Archbishop who has been the Vatican's "second-in-command" on all matters liturgical for the past four years (as Secretary of the Congregation for Divine Worship), with a responsibility for getting rid of this kind of liturgical abuse. Whoever was in charge of vestments for his installation made him look pretty silly.

And yes, even Byzantine vestments evolve, but I would like to see the reaction if an Orthodox bishop suddenly decided to wear the epitrachelion over the sakkos!

No one questions that.



I think that you are talking about the so-called "traditional cuts" (e.g. the various kinds of "Roman" chasuble, etc.) of vestments, which is not even the topic here.

What we are discussing here is the way that the vestments of the Roman Rite are being mixed and matched (or merged) in ways that show very little respect for their significance.



Such changes should at least respect the principle of organic development.

Such changes should at least respect the principle of organic development.

But (and this is not my area of expertise), it appears to me what you have is Latin bishops wearing vestments in their own dioceses. It may have started off as an abuse, but it is fast on its way to becoming a custom, and in time will become a legitimate variation. After all, what Latin priests wear today bears very little resemblance to what they wore in 1300, which in turn bears little resemblance to what they were wearing in 1000, which would look strange indeed to Pope Gregory the Great around 600.

If the Latin Church were not so organizationally monolithic--that is, if it was allowed to develop organically in different geographical regions--this would not be an issue..

LC:

Christ is in our midst!!

This type of thing has been common in the United States for over 25 years. In fact, some vestment designers have gone out of their way to make it so. Some of these sets were designed so that the only ornamentation was on the stole so it was worn outside to break up the fact that the chasuble was so plain. Another feature was that the common practice then became that the chasuble for concelebrants was omitted altogether even when they were available. I think the whole midset comes from the idea that after the Council everything had to be "new," so everything that had been done before had to be ignored.

As far as wearing the sole on top, even deacons have been known to have their stole worn on the outside: something that is not Latin practice in the most recent centuries.

The late John Paul II of blessed memory tried to reverse this sort of thing, but he had lots of resistance from many quarters in the Latin Catholic Church. You notice the comments from the link you posted about wearing a stole over street clothes to celebrate the Liturgy--well, that came from the many abuses that had become normative in the same period and with the same mindset.

BOB

That is the first time i see it! took me while to understsand the pic...

This is wierd... Thanks for the explanation all...