Head Coverings for Women (in the Catholic Church)

Zenit News Agency ^ | May 22, 2007 | Father Edward McNamara

[NYer]

Whenever Christmas and Easter Mass was approaching the hats would become conspicuous in the Bamberger, Kresge and Penny window displays.

Thank you for that trip down memory lane!!

Do you remember the Christmas corsages?

Of course we couldn.t wear a hat in the church cause Mother Superior said that God could look through the top of our head and read our soul!!!

Lol! Much like the nuns who told us not to wear patent leather shoes.

Back in pre VCII days, pew backs were equipped with a handy hat holder. Haven't seen those in a long time.

[k omalley]

I wear a little scarf to daily Mass and usually a hat on Sunday. I save my mantilla for when I visit Tridentine parishes. I do love mantillas though. They are so feminine.

[k omalley]

“the muslims have now contaminated the whole idea of reverent head covering for women..”

I believe you are right. I tried to get my daughters to cover their heads when we were attending a Tridentine Mass. They said no way would they wear a burqua.

[afraidfortherepublic]

Yeah, and when women show up without head coverings someone plops a kleenex on their heads. That’s better than not having any covering? I think not. Just another in a long list of why I’ve quit the Catholic Church.

You must have quit a LOOOOOOOONG time ago! Haven't seen that practice for 40 years.

[Mr. Jeeves]

But we may say that this passage contains some elements that have perennial theological value and others which reflect transitory social mores which apply only to the specific time and place of the Corinthians.

This is true of the entire Bible.

[afraidfortherepublic]

I think it’s an American thing, you’ll often see immigrant women with head coverings,

I disagree. In the mid 1960s we all wore hats, or mantillas, or doilies to church. A woman joined our parish and dared to come to church hatless and sat right up front where all could see her to the shock of most of the other parishioners.

For a couple of weeks people whispered about it, butthen we were told that she was from Holland (wife of a grad student at Berkeley), and the Dutch had long since given up wearing hats to church. Something about it being an outgrowth of the war and the cost of hats.

We continued wearing them and she continued going hatless, but by 1970 most everyone stopped wearing hats (except me). Only once did I hear anything from the pulpit. The priest asked, "Did I miss the announcement banning hats in church?" But no one paid any attention.

Then we moved to Texas and my husband gave all my hats away (I had gone ahead to enroll the children in school). That pretty much limited my hat wearing for a few years, and when I resumed it was just for Palm Sunday and the Easter Season.

For the last few years I have been alone at Mass wearing a hat, except for a few children in their Easter dresses. I didn't bother this year at all, and no one else did either. LOL. But I WON'T wear flip flops and jeans to church! I don't care how many do.

[afraidfortherepublic]

And gloves. Fashionistas told us that we had to wear gloves when wearing a hat. However, if your head was uncovered, gloves were OK, but not required. That is why you only see gloves now in cold weather. No hats, no gloves.

If you want to see some dramatic hats, drive past any Black Church on Sunday morning. The women go all out for hats, almost like going to Ascot with the Queen!

[tob2]

I agree that the lace mantilla is lovely. It’s easy to carry in the purse or pocket. Most women to do not wear hats to Mass, not even on Easter Sunday. When I was at Mass on Easter, was the only one there with a hat on. I felt so out of place and was terribly embarrassed. Remember very vividly when I was a kid at Mass seeing the priests prowling the aisles looking for the slightest infrations in the female “dress code”. If they had no hats, gloves or wore patent leather shoes, out they went!

[livius]

I remember as late as the 1950s, my mother wouldn’t go downtown or even to the grocery store without her hat and gloves!

I also remember seeing someone with a dollar bill pinned to her hair in a church in New York once. (No, the usher didn’t grab it for the collection!)

I think it’s just a cultural thing and doesn’t really express much about people’s attitude towards going to church. Once upon a time, everyone wore hats; now no one does.

[Sacajaweau]

I can remember wearing Long blue satin gloves when I was young. It was in the early sixties. Yes, and there was a hat in every Easter picture of me and the kids and that was in the late 60's.

Guess there was more money in jeans.

[Frank Sheed]

Dum-dum-dum-dum-dum-dum-ditty-ditty-dum-dum-dum-dum-dum-dum-ditty-ditty-dum-dum....

[Sashula]

I am such a hypocrite on this matter, and I ask all of you like-minded brothers and sisters to pray for me. I truly believe that wearing the veil is the right thing to do, but I don’t have the guts to do it unless I’m at a parish where others wear it.

We’ve just moved to IL near St. Louis. Our parish church is more orthodox than any in the city we just left (except the Fathers of Mercy), but no one wears the veil. My husband doesn’t want to go to the Maronite cathedral or St. Francis de Sales Oratory (TLM), so we’re attending a Novus Ordo parish that has a faithful priest and has Perpetual Adoration (the only Perpetual Adoration for miles around, as far as I can tell).

This has been a very difficult issue for me emotionally and spiritually, and I would appreciate any feedback or prayers you could offer.

[alexander_busek]

>>...for this reason a woman should have a sign of authority on her head, because of the angels.<<

How are “angels” at all a justification for women covering their heads? What an off-the-wall reference!

[AnAmericanMother]

. . . it better be something or the Womens Group really got ugly with each other. . . .

Cat fight!

[afraidfortherepublic]

I was an adult convert in the late ‘50s and took (take) it very seriously.

I received the sacrament of Confirmation in the early ‘60s at the old Oakland, CA Cathedral, since destroyed in an earthquake. Following the hat rule of the day (hat requires gloves — if not on, at least held in the left hand), I was wearing my small & neat velvet hat with the bow in front, my slim, Harris tweed dress, my 4 inch heeled pumps, and my 8 button leather golves as I approached the Bishop on the altar down the long, long aisle.

Suddenly, about a quarter of the way to the altar, a hand reached out and grabbed my wrist and stopped me cold. A nun hissed at me -— “Take off your gloves!” Shocked, I did as told. Only later I learned that no one had taught me the Catholic rule to never receive a Sacrament while wearing gloves.

I was so embarrassed.

Now it seems that anything goes. The attitude is that God would rather have you in church more than He cares how you are dressed. It’s sad, really, because I think that how you are dressed shows respect for the occasion and respect for God.

[livius]

LOL! Funny story.

True, God does care about more than the way you’re dressed, but if you have decent clothing around and can dress properly, why not do so for God? Most people wouldn’t show up for dinner at somebody’s house dressed as if they were going to the beach or cleaning out the garage, and I don’t see why they should go to church that way.

[afraidfortherepublic]

I say do as you feel is appropriate. Who cares if you are the only one in church wearing a head covering? If you are friendly and have a big smile for them, others will not think it strange; and perhaps some of them will join you eventually. Surely they’ve seen it before.

As I said earlier on this thread, I am probably the last one in my parish to give up the hat. (I’ve never liked the mantilla, or doily.) And I’m not at all certain that I have given it up altogether. Ask me next Easter.

[livius]

I think you should just wear it. Nobody’s really going to care one way or the other, or if people ask you about it, just say you used to wear it in your old parish and you’re more comfortable with it.

Who knows, other people may start doing it, too! When I started going up to Communion with my hands pressed together (the way we were taught), I was the only one doing it in my parish. Now almost half the people do it, and fewer and fewer are taking Communion in the hand.

[Sacajaweau]

The nuns had no business embarrassing you. There's simply no way that it can be a "sin" and therefore not wrong.

I remember changing my seat at graduation so if the Bishop came by and expected me to kiss his ring...well, it wasn't gonna happen.

We're TAUGHT to be followers in these situations but have been given our own minds and do have the ability to sort things.

Being polite will never go out of style but being submissive is not part of it.

USE YOUR OWN MIND. OBVIOUSLY, YOUR OWN MIND SAID THERE WAS NOTHING WRONG WITH THE GLOVE AND YOU HAD IT RIGHT BEFORE SOMEONE INTERFERRED WITH YOUR OWN MIND.

[AnAmericanMother]

Why be embarassed? Everybody was probably admiring your hat (I assume it was a nice hat).

Maybe it's because I'm over 50 now, but I sure don't care what anybody else thinks about what I'm wearing. If I'm happy with it, I'm happy with it.

I always have something in my hair in church -- I avoid the big hats or mantillas because I'm in the choir and it looks like "out of uniform", but even if it's just a bow, a scrap of lace, or a couple of hairsticks, it's something.

When I was a kid, the ladies in the Episcopal choir had the cutest little three-cornered hats that were part of the choir vestments. They also had Elizabethan ruffs (so did the guys)!

But I wear either lightweight pants or a very lightweight dress to church, because during Mass I'm vested and the choir robes are HEAVY wool. Plus it's very hot in the choir loft, seems like all the heat finds its way up to us. Any nice dress that I wore would be wringing wet and ruined.