"During an August 1st gathering with a group of Jesuits the Holy Father said: 'I am happy to receive you. Thank you so much for this visit, it does me good. When I was a student, when you had to go to the Superior General, and when with the Superior General we had to go to the Pope, you wore the cassock and the mantello. I see that this fashion no longer exists, thank God.' The Pope can be seen in the photos with a group of Jesuits with clerical shirts of various colors and styles, all with a clerical collar; no one is wearing his cassock, except the Pope.
"Now, I, as a priest, am accustomed to show respect to the Pope, but I don't understand these comments at all. I don't see how comments like this cannot do more harm than good. The use of the cassock and the mantello, Holy Father, is not a 'fashion,' but a sign of deeper respect for one's priestly dignity. Do you think that the faithful prefer their priests in sweaters and polo shirts? No, Holy Father; when the simple people see a priest in his cassock they always say things like: 'he looks like a real priest!' Because the habit, sometimes, does make the monk.
"I remember an old religious hospitalized in the last days of his life imploring the nurses to not deprive him of his habit (they should wash it...), because he had never separated himself from his habit, he was always faithful to it. Because, know, Holy Father, that these 'deconstructionist' expressions foreshadow the total rejection of ecclesiastical attire, including that being worn by those who were visiting You.
"Your predecessor of venerated memory Saint John Paul II in 1982 said: 'We the envoys of Christ to preach the Gospel, have a message to transmit, whether it is expressed with words or also with external signs, above all in the present world which is so keen on the language of images. The clerical habit, as that of the religious, has a particular significance; for the diocesan priest it has principally the character of a sign, which distinguishes him from the worldly environment in which he lives; for the religious it expresses also the character of consecration and manifests the eschatological end of the religious life. The habit, therefore, aids the evangelical ends and elicits reflection on the reality which we represent in the world and on the primacy of the spiritual values in the existence of man, which we affirm. By means of such a sign, it is made easier for others to arrive at the Mystery, of which we are bearers, and at Him to Whom we belong and Whom we wish to announce with all of our being.
"I esteem my confreres who wear a distinctive clerical garb according to their state in life, and I esteem even more those who wear the cassock, as I do, a deeper sign of separation from the world and of belonging to the supernatural dimension."
Abate Faria
Stilum Curiae, 9-8-18
(Plinthos translation)