Father Z over at WDTPRS finds a rather obscure reference to the types of shoes that are supposed to be worn while offering/assisting at Mass. From his blog:
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Some time ago I reported the publication of the reissue of Ludovico Trimeboni’s Compendio di Liturgia Pratica (Milano: Marietti 1829, 2007). If you want to know how to do something traddy, look in this book.I said that I would from time to time share interesting points, as I did here.I have just found out that I am in grave violation of a seriously important point when celebrating the "Tridentine Mass". This is so huge… folks, well… what to say… I think… I just don’t know if I can go on….
In the section on "Ceremonies of Mass, ch. I, "The Read Mass", I. "The Celebrant" §1 – Ordinary Ceremonies – 421 – "In the sacristy" ([. 397) I have just now read (my translation):
Use the footware that clerics of the place are used to wearing publicly and wear the cassock.
Well… this part isn’t so hard, though I am not sure I can find either matching flip flops or golf shoes for my cassock. Maybe a different color cassock… hmmm… but I digress. What follows is what upset me so much, and, of course, it is in a footnote: the good stuff always is:
D. 3268, 3. [Cf. Naifa, Costume of the Prelates of the Catholic Church, Balitmore, 1925:
"According to the Roman ceremonial, all clerics and those who serve in church, as cantors, sacristans, etc., ought to wear shoes with buckles (It. fibbie). The buckle is of shiny steel for members of the inferior clergy and servers, in silver for priests, monks and prelates belonging to religious orders. Gold and guilded silver are reserved for secular prelates."
All this time…. do you hear??? .... all this time I have been out of bounds, perhaps my immortal sole… er… soul in danger.I am caught in a real aporia here. On the one hand, how to deal with wearing shoes like clergy wear around here. I mean, how to you clip buckles on flipflops, anyway? I guess you can work more easy with golf shoes. But where to get silver buckles these days?
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Read all about it at his blog : http://wdtprs.com/blog/2007/06/buckle-up/