By Jenna Marie Cooper
OSV News Question Corner
Q: What are the criteria determining who can wear a clerical collar? I'm not sure if it varies from one seminary/diocese to another, but I'm curious why seminary students would wear a collar since they are not yet a member of the clergy. It's caused confusion for adults and children alike when they refer to a young man as "father" because of his collar when the man has more years left for discernment.
A: As far as I can tell, the timing of when a seminarian begins wearing distinctive clerical clothes depends largely on local customs and the practice of individual seminaries.
Some important background information to keep in mind is that discerning a priestly vocation is not meant by the church to be an “all at once" process. That is, the church has traditionally envisioned the journey to the priesthood as involving several well-defined steps and states. Although seminarians are not clergy until they are ordained transitional deacons in their final year, one of the purposes of seminary formation is to allow the students to take on the various elements and obligations of priestly life in a gradual way.
Often, seminarians begin dressing like priests when they begin their four years of dedicated theological studies, which occurs after several years of initial formation based on spirituality and the study of academic philosophy and a college degree. Some seminaries attach the wearing of clerical clothes to a specific stage of formation called "candidacy," but candidacy can also occur at different times in different places. A few seminaries have the custom of only allowing students to wear clerical clothes once they become members of the clergy as transitional deacons.
In any case, the positive side to the confusion you have experienced is the blessing of having new vocations in your midst!
Jenna Marie Cooper, who holds a licentiate in canon law, is a consecrated virgin and a canonist whose column appears weekly at OSV News. Send your questions to [email protected].