[Iscool]

The garments (and ad orientam - which will return shortly) are intended to emphasize the anonymity of the priest.

The guys walks around and sits with a half a grapefruit on his head while wearing a dress adorned with real jewels and real gold...He looks like no one else in the world...

And people kneel and bow when they are in his presence...

An anonymous figure??? Sure...And I've got an igloo in Arizona you may be interested in buying...

[MarkBsnr]

The guys walks around and sits with a half a grapefruit on his head while wearing a dress adorned with real jewels and real gold...He looks like no one else in the world...

The Servant of the Servants of God? Reminds me of these guys, but I have no idea where the real jewels and the real gold is. Perhaps you might enlighten us where dresses adorned with real jewels and real gold (as opposed to unreal jewels and unreal gold) are:

Oh, that's right. Arians don't like to acknowledge that the Jews are our elder brethren.

Wearing a dress? Kinda reminds me of these guys:

Not like anyone in the world? Well, he does as a few do; he washes their feet like Jesus did in total humility:

And people kneel and bow when they are in his presence...

Sounds like you've never been in the presence of a man of God. Have you ever washed somebody's feet in total humility in public?

An anonymous figure??? Sure...And I've got an igloo in Arizona you may be interested in buying...

You should sell tickets to the Church of Iscool services. I bet that they'd be a success. There is not nor should there be public lauding of the service of God. Unlike the Lord of the LaZBoy Throne of Sunday Sports Theology in the Church of Iscool (population one).

[Mad Dawg]

There is a problem — well, more than one. (I have no idea what “half a grapefruit” refers to.)

You insist that the vestments and ceremonies are about the person, the individual. Maybe they are for you, but you are not a Catholic. So it’s not so clear how your reaction could be an argument against Catholicism.

Personally, I find it completely natural and reasonable to distinguish between the individual and the function. I don’t care so very much about the person of the guy who cuts my grass or takes out my appendix. My recourse to both of them is centered on their function, their “office”.

I am not unaware of them personally, but it is psychologically easy to separate their function from themselves.

Likewise when Fr. So and so hears my confession (and sometimes I will choose a confessor precisely because I don’t know him) or celebrates the Mass, my mind is not on him but on Jesus.

So your report of what gets your attention at Mass has no connection with what gets my attention at Mass, and simply does not apply to our statements on the topic.