More Catholic priests opt for traditional uniform as public statement of faith

IN his former life as a banker, Joseph Hamilton wore Canali suits and Hermes ties. Now he wears a cassock.

Newly ordained Fr Joseph Hamilton (left) and Fr Daniele Russo in St Mary's Cathedral crypt this morning.

IN his former life as a banker, Joseph Hamilton wore Canali suits and Hermes ties. Now he wears a cassock.

The newly ordained priest doesn’t have to wear the long, black robe and white clerical collar. Most parish priests don’t and haven’t for decades.

But Fr Hamilton is one of a growing number of young priests embracing traditional dress as a public statement of their faith.

The issue can be a divisive one, with some regarding the vestments as dragging the Church into the past.

Fr Hamilton, 41, an Irish-born former senior manager at Deutsche Bank who entered the seminary in his mid-30s, has spent the past year as a deacon at a Lane Cove parish. He wears his cassock everywhere.

“People who don’t know me, who aren’t Catholic, come up and talk to me if they have problems,” he said. “They recognise someone they can talk to.

Catholic Archbishop of Sydney, the Most Rev. Anthony Fisher OP (centre) with newly ordained men of the cloth Fr Joseph Hamilton and Fr Daniele Russo.

“It says the Catholic Church is still here in Sydney, and it’s still open for business. The cassock is very thin fabric.

“It’s super-light. It’s way more comfortable than a pair of trousers and a shirt and clerical collar. I wear board shorts underneath. With long socks.”

After the Second Vatican Council in the mid-1960s, priests and nuns were encouraged to ditch their cassocks and habits and dress more like members of their flock. Priests who kept wearing them tended to belong to religious orders, such as the Dominicans.

But in recent years, there has been a trend — particularly among young recruits — to reclaim their vestments as an expression of their faith.

Fr Hamilton was one of two new Sydney archdiocese priests ordained on Friday by Archbishop Anthony Fisher (there were six last year).

The other was Daniele Russo, 25, from Greenacre, who entered the seminary at 19. He, too, likes to wear the cassock.

“A lot of priests value the importance of the visible sign,” he said.

“Catholics are very happy to see young faces looking like the priests they saw when they were young.

“It reminds them that the church is alive, that the church is interested in public life, and not something to be relegated to the private life.

“That then frees them to make visible expressions of their faith.

“I was in the pub on Wednesday night watching State of Origin and someone came up and wanted a blessing.”

A spokeswoman for the archbishop declined to comment on the issue.