[Question:]{.underline} Is it true that the Church frowns on the use of Gothic vestments, preferring the Roman cut?
[Answer:]{.underline} It is true that when the so-called Gothic vestments appeared early this century, they were considered to be somewhat of a novelty, capable of causing undue surprise in the minds of the faithful. This was not infrequently because more attention was given to the archaic form than to the sacredness of the vestment. The mind of the Church before Vatican II is clearly expressed in this text of 1957, from the Sacred Congregation of Rites, quoted in Matters Liturgical, p. 207: “The older or mediaeval style of the Roman chasuble, popularly by erroneously called the Gothic chasuble, may be used with the permission of the local Ordinary. To his prudent judgment the matter is now committed. In making this judgment he is cautioned to consider local and other special circumstances, to have regard to the sanctity and decorum due to divine worship, and not to authorize this change from the present Roman practice except after consultation and mature deliberation. Especially should he careful to forbid such changes in the form of vestments as are likely to disturb or surprise the faithful”.
Over the past 40 years the use of the so-called Gothic vestment has become universally accepted. However, there is a grave danger of the sacredness of this vestment being lost, which is what is responsible for the extremely distasteful modernist vestment, which have neither decoration nor symbolism. Consequently, there would no longer be any reason to disapprove of a “Gothic” vestment, so long as it is designed as a sacred vestment, with religious ornamentation, and with a cross on the back, symbolizing the sweet yoke of the cross that the priest must carry if he is to be filled with the all-encompassing charity that the chasuble, a little hut that entirely surrounds the body, symbolizes.
Fr. Nichols Gihr has this to say in The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, first published in 1877: “Originally the chasuble was an outer garment which fell about the priest and completely enveloped him. The chasuble had an opening in the middle by which it was allowed to come down on the shoulders. As these cloak- and bell-shaped chasuble had much about them which was inconvenient, they began in the eleventh century to shorten or open them at both sides for a freer use of the arms, and this alteration gave the form of the so-called Gothic chasubles, which were still common in the sixteenth century. Although from this period more and more was cut away from the chasuble, it yet remained up to the eighteenth century tolerably long and full of folds, but alas! since that time the vestment has been replaced by a chasuble of still shorter and less graceful pattern.”
Answered by Father Peter Scott, SSPX.