UNITED STATES
Whispers in the Loggia
Indeed, this Saturday’s cycle has been topped by word of a “Purple Drought” of Apocalyptic proportions: after a ten-month moratorium on the naming of monsignori while studying the practice’s future, the Pope has reportedly restricted future awards of the honorary prelature to priests over age 65, and then only to the juniormost rank of Chaplain of His Holiness, which entitles the recipient to the black cassock with violet sash and piping for choir and non-liturgical use alike.
According to the initial report by Turin’s La Stampa, all current monsignors retain their rank and privileges as conferred.
Having spanned some 15 degrees of varying titles, vesture and perks before Vatican II – including some which lasted only for the lifetime of the Pope who conferred them – the last major reform to the monsignorial honors came in 1968, when Paul VI folded the classes into three grades, all given for life, restricting all but a handful of Vatican officials to the simplified style of “Reverend Monsignor.” In the late 1990s – after perceived abuses of the system by bishops in the US and Western Europe – the Holy See restricted the honorees to comprising no more than ten percent of a diocesan presbyterate at any one time, as well as ending the then-common practice of allowing younger priests to become purple-cassocked Prelates of Honor without at least several years as Chaplains first.
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