Despite all the smoke in the article these bishops are living in a splendor the Christ never had on earth. It is worldly, as are their costumes.
So are you, unless you're living on the street or moving from one friend's couch to another's, with an occasional stop at your Mom's.
Jesus obviously lived the way anybody else of his class did until he started his ministry. He was what we would now consider either self employed or a small businessman, who worked in his father’s carpentry/home handyman business, but he obviously lived somewhere stable and went to shul and had a good Jewish education.
Most bishops are middle class, and they live generally at a somewhat lower level than that. Some may live in a bishop’s palace, but most don’t, and even the few that do are usually trying to escape it and turn it into a museum or a hotel. In many countries, actually, huge mansions were built for bishops at the behest of clergy and laity...and then the bishops refused to live in them because they were too luxurious.
If you go to Astorga in Spain, you’ll see a palace designed by Gaudi for the bishop of the place...which the bishop never lived in because he felt it was too spectacular and also it was completely impractical for meetings or even hosting visitors.
“costumes”? These are priestly rituals dating back to the time of Christ and carried on by His disciples.
The liturgical vestments worn at Mass have evolved over time. Nevertheless, since the earliest days of the Church, liturgical vestments have been worn by priests for the celebration of the Mass. Even though priests of the Old Testament wore vestments in their liturgical rites, the “Christian” vestments are not really adaptations of them; rather, the vestments of the Christians developed from the dress of the Graeco-Roman world, including the religious culture.
Nevertheless, the Old Testament idea of wearing a special kind of clothing in the performance of liturgical rites did influence the Church. St. Jerome asserted, “The Divine religion has one dress in the service of sacred things, another in ordinary intercourse and life.”
After the legalization of Christianity in A.D. 313, the Church continued to refine “who wore what when and how” until about the year 800 when liturgical norms for vesting were basically standardized and would remain so until the renewal following the Second Vatican Council.
“Costumes” is an interesting choice of word, and to someone without much exposure to the everyday lives of Catholic priests and deacons, I can see why it is used.
The “vestments” are only worn during the hour or so that Mass is celebrated, and for the most part, are not owned by the bishop or priest. Outside of mass, a bishop looks like other bishops, and a priest looks like any other priest (often all black with a Roman or Oxford collar). Not very showy, eh?
Each part of the “costume” is actually associated with a prayer and a reminder. See info:
http://whycatholicsdothat.com/why-do-catholic-priest-wear-vestments/
Note that even Capuchin Franciscans who wear a plain brown habit and take a vow of poverty will wear the same vestments that other priests do when celebrating Mass. They are not worn for their own aggrandizement.
“It is worldly, as are their costumes.”
So is the internet.
Agreed. And there’s all that’s spent on all sorts of things, like the clothing. How much might it have cost to confirm that John Paul was a “saint,” and how much time and energy of how many people were put to it. And working on all these religious works tends to give people a false sense of security, the sense of “I must be doing fine with God, since I’m working on this holy work (making bishops’ clothes, working for the Pope) that has so many people awed and excited.”