EDITORIAL - A cassock is not a safety issue

There is now some sort of a debate on whether or not priests should go back to wearing cassocks in public in the wake of the killing of Fr. Jovencio Rabusa by robbers who wanted only his cellphone.

Fr. Rabusa was attacked while in civilian clothes and the debate was sparked by the theory that the robbers would have hesitated or even spared him had they known he was a priest by his appearance.

We do not believe the safety of priests should be the basis for this or any other debate on whether or not priests should be wearing cassocks in public. In the first place, we do not believe safety was an issue when cassocks were invented.

We believe cassocks were invented for practical purposes and not for identification. The way they are configured hews to how original garments looked at the time, cut with an eye toward convenience and protection.

That they later were adapted to signify association with religious ministries is just an added reason to the original practical purpose. Over time, however, the adaptation grew more in significance and this is how we should all see the cassock's relevance.

Men of the cloth —a term probably spun from the flowing garment's association with the religious — love to insist that priests are priests forever, never mind if for one reason or another they have fallen from grace and have been barred from performing certain duties.

In deference to the priestly order, and the common folk's continuing belief and submission to the faith, nobody has dared to openly challenge this insistence on priestly perpetuity.

But doesn't it seem out of whack to insist on being priests forever while at the same time refusing to be publicly identified as such at all times? How can priests insist on being a priests forever if, in some moments, they don't want to be seen as one, at least in appearance?

We do not believe the wearing of cassocks is more important as a safety issue than it is as a means of signifying association with, and thus respect and reverence for, the religious mission for which the cassock stands for.