Vatican City, Nov 19, 2012 / 17:05 pm
In an effort to promote priestly identity, the Vatican Secretary of State has issued a letter asking clerics and religious at the Vatican to dress as befits their identity as priests conformed to Christ.
Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone said in an Oct. 15 letter that it is a "time in which everyone is specially called to renew his awareness of and consistency with his own identity."
This call includes priests and religious who work at the Vatican, he wrote, reminding them that they have "the duty of wearing regularly and with dignity the proper habit, in every season."
The text of the letter, sent to all the offices of the Roman Curia, was made available Nov. 19 by the Vatican observer and journalist Sandro Magister.