Replies

Anyone tell me where I can find out how all those fancy robes with gold and stuff on them and the hats they were were instituted and why? Yeshua and his disciples just wore a simple robe and sandals. Wouldnâ€™t you think the Church would emulate that? Iâ€™m not being hateful or anything, just curious. Thanks in advance.

Yes ... scripture. God commanded that they be used in the Old Testament. Look at Exodus 28:2:

For your brother Aaron you will make sacred vestments to give dignity and magnificence. You will instruct all the skilled men, whom I have endowed with skill, to make Aaron's vestments for his consecration to my priesthood. These are the vestments which they must make: a pectoral, an ephod, a robe, an embroidered tunic, a turban, and a belt. They must make sacred vestments for your brother Aaron and his sons, for them to be priests in my service. They will use gold and violet material, red-purple and crimson, and finely woven linen.

The rest of the chapter gives details on each garment.

Nothing in the New Testament requires abolition of priestly vestments. Our Lord attacked the Jewish leaders for a number of sins, but he never condemned their priestly garb. It's true the early Church didn't use the Old Testament vestments, but this is because Christians didn't want to identify their leaders with the Jewish priesthood.

My minister wears a business suit.

Catholic priests simply retained their manner of liturgical dress. Priestly vestments are no more than stylized secular Roman, Greek, and other garments which have accrued symbolic, liturgical significance over the centuries.