Why Do Catholic Priests Wear All those Robes?

And also why are they so bad at times. Standing on my Head has a good post on this at Why Wear All those Robes?...

I do love this part:
my Protestant mother once asked. To give her credit, she always asks because she really wants to know--not because she's picking a fight.In fact, I wish cradle Catholics had a bit of her curiosity. When I see the tacky vestments in most Catholic Church cupboards I can't figure it out. You mustn't misunderstand, I promise you I am not one of those prissy priests who finger lace, purse their lips and roll their eyes with delight. I am not an expert in brocade, silk, taffeta, petticoats and whatever else.

However, it doesn't take much taste or learning or respect for the sacraments to see that the day-glo, polyester vestments with machine gun embroidery is in the same category as hip hugger bell bottoms, big hair and turquoise leisure suits with wide lapels.Why was the stuff made and foisted on us in the first place? I suspect it has to do with the fact that cradle Catholics never took the time to ask the sensible question my Protestant mother asked, "Why do you wear all those fancy robes?" If they had troubled themselves to ask what vestments are for they may not have decided to go the route of polyester ponchos with pictures of fish, grapes and wheat on them.......

That is so true. I spent alot of time in my first years as a convert pondering this question as to why we seemed to be stuck in a Liturgical version of the Brady Bunch. I often wanted just to stand up and in the middle of Mass and ask the congregation if they liked the vestments, the "sacred" Vessels that looked like they were bought from Walmart, the felt banners, really bad choices of music. In effect if everyone was happy being frozen in 1975.

The problem is if you asked that then you got the feeling you were doing something bad. Being all Pre Vatican II and all. The thing is I don't think most people liked it all. They just sort of went along. They were told that this was all getting back to the simplicity of the "early Church" blah blah and that kept the rabble down. Of course that answer did not make much sense.

I was very pleased that our Priest this weekend actually had nice Vestments on. It is difficult to bring this up because people will go "what does this have to do with the simple message of Jesus?". Actually quite a bit as Father shows in his above blog entry. Again is it the most crucial thing? Of course not. However it was one of many important small things that with combined with a hundred other small things that have been ignored or abused start to add up to a mighty big thing.