Q: Quick weary: a certain religious community in the area wants to revert from using white at funerals (pall/ vestments) to black. Just seems to me that many just want to do the opposite of what has come from Vatican II — but perhaps just just my take.
I know black and violet are also options, but do you have any articles expounding on the use of white at Funerals Masses? When I look through the prayers of the Funeral Rite and from the Missal I don’t get that “black” feeling. Maybe some violet, but definitely I get the dose of hope the white color expresses.
It’s all about baptism, right? From the pall to the final commendation to the burial.
Death is when our baptism catches up with us.
Take care, and thanks much.
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A: The customary color of vestments for funerals varies from one conference of bishops to another. Just as we in the US may find violet or black vesture sending an unnecessarily sorrowful message, Catholics in Ireland may find white vestments at a funeral sending an unnecessarily jolly message.
For sure, we in the US see white vestments as a sign of the hope of resurrection for those who are baptized. The pall explicitly makes the connection, as I showed here: https://paulturner.org/pall-of-the-casket/.
I wear white vestments for funerals, but I’m also attentive to the prayers that beg God’s merciful judgment on the deceased. The texts of the funeral Mass do not assume that the deceased is in heaven, even though many mourners in private conversation and many homilists in public preaching canonize the deceased.
I don’t recall an article on this particular topic, but my book on funerals is Light in the Darkness, and my article in Anaphora is here: https://paulturner.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Funerals-Anaphora-1.pdf.