It is an interesting cultural touchstone to consider how priests dress themselves for Holy Mass. You can tell something about a parish that adorns its advent wreaths in blue candles, you can tell something about priest who wears his stole on the outside of his chasuble, you can tell something about a church that has "Glory and Praise" hymnals. Likewise, you can tell something about the bishop by the type of mitre he wears.

Consider the difference today between tall and short mitres on bishops. A short, squatty mitre smacks of a liberal, moderny bishop; a soaringly tall mitre suggests a "high-church" traddy bishop.

Exhibits:

Bp. Tod Brown, Diocese of Orange County, CA:

Roger Cardinal Mahony, Archdiocese of Los Angeles, CA:

BY CONTRAST:

Bishop Robert Finn, Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph, MO:

The late Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, SSPX:

NOTE:

It's not a totally reliable indicator of episcopal orthodoxy, of course. Bishops usually have more than one mitre! One good example:

Archbishop Raymond Burke (short mitre), Archdiocese of St. Louis, MO (Emeritus):

Archbishop Raymond Burke (medium mitre):

I would be remiss if I didn't mention that my own Archbishop, His Excellency Joseph Naumann, wears a fairly short mitre. In my estimation, Abp. Naumann is a suitably orthodox bishop and I am happy to be in his archdiocese. I wish he were a little more accommodating to traditional Catholics in Johnson County, but I really can't call it much of a complaint. And you go to Church with the Ordinary you have, not the Ordinary you want to have, so I'll be happy that we've at least got one of the "good guys" and not one of the renegade bishops. I think that if Abp. Naumann wears a short mitre, it's because the dude's huge. (note: ordinary is another word for "bishop") If you've ever seen the good Archbishop in person, you know that he's a mountain of a man. I bet his short mitre is just a function of his height.

In the end, it's not the hat. It's the man under the hat. Still, these exceptions aside, I think that the hat has become a fairly reliable indicator of the man under the hat. Vestments have trends just like anything else. Certain styles come in and out of fashion--in church styles, the fashions often belie some bigger issue.

This scene from the 1964 movie Becket is a good example of a very short mitre that would have been very typical of the gothic era of the Church:

The days of the renaissance era were extravagant ones for Catholicism. The renaissance era produced so many of the Church's great artistic treasures--they were also colored by corruption and underhanded behavior at the top of the Church (check out the "renaissance popes" some time to understand the full scope of corruption). But for all of its impropriety, it was the height of artistry. During this time the mitre soared to peaking heights--and bishops that wore short mitres were seen as fuddy-duddies that weren't in on the party. But the party ended when Martin Luther began his reformation which eventually split into Protestantism; as the protestant reformation was met by the Church's counter-reformation, a cultural shift was underway in Catholicism.

This period gave birth to great discipline in the church. It founded so many great religious orders like the Discalced Carmelites and a resurgence to the Benedictines, it was the era that founded the Jesuits and the Dominicans.

The baroque mitre stayed tall and dominant. I think that it was a mark of representing the authority and tradition of the Church in a time when it was more vogue to challenge the Church than listen to her (I freely admit that my own personal bias may enter the analysis here). The tall mitre became the standard of the episcopacy for a very long time.

Enter: the 1960's.

Like renaissance tall-mitre bishops were distrustful of paleo-gothic small-mitred bishops as being spoilsports, the free-wheeling times in the church that arrived with the 60's, 70's and 80's were distrustful of the stodgy ordinaries in their tall hats. It was another cultural shift underway. Mitres became short and fat (didn't we all?) hitting their nadir sometime around His Holiness Benedict XVI was elevated to the papacy. Not quite the little mitres of gothic Catholicism, but you get the picture. Tall-mitred bishops were curmudgeons or stalwarts, relics of a bygone era. The new episcopacy was just this-side of iconoclasm and would have rather not taken part in the tall-mitred feet dragging of their old fashioned predecessors.

I should make it clear that I'm using some pretty serious over-generalization at this point.

For around four decades, it was the norm of the bishops to dress with plain and simple flowy vestments (the Roman chasuble is still the norm for priests in America--it's the top robe that Father wears for Mass. A Roman chasuble is typical of the gothic era; the "fiddleback" chasuble is associated with a baroque aesthetic... and with priests who offer the Tridentine Latin Mass) with short mitres.

The shift began when Pope Benedict XVI asked Archbishop Piero Marini to step down as the Papal Master of Ceremonies. Papal MCs basically run the public appearances of the pope; they coordinate Masses and speeches, they present him with his vestments and control the appearance of the papacy. Abp. Piero Marini was Pope John Paul II's Papal MC and essentially created the "JP2 Style". It was the style that Benedict inherited when he assumed the throne, the earliest pictures of Benedict as pope have him in some vestments that totally don't match the style which he models today. It's a big sign of whether or not a photo is old or recent, as they are typical of the two Marinis who served as papal MC's.

Pope Benedict XVI with "old Marini" Archbishop Piero Marini as Papal MC:

Pope Benedict XVI with "new Marini" Monsignor Guido Marini as Papal MC:

Some of the differences can be explained as simple fashion: 60's and 70's minimalism is giving way to a little more ornamentation. But I also think that we're in a period of aesthetic and theological reactionism to the post-Vatican II era. It's a strange time. I'm beginning to think of this period of Catholicism as post-Conciliarism; Catholic are reacting to the stuff we lost to iconoclasm in the 70's, 80's and 90's. The Church is tradding-up.

Frankly, we're probably just tired of stripped down minimalism, we'd like a little... interestingness. Some weight. Some appreciation of beauty. Of tradition. Of orthodoxy. Of glory.

The mitres are a historical outward sign of this. It's not a perfect measure, of course. It's not the hat. It's the man under the hat. But it's still proving a somewhat reliable standard of what kind of bishop is in charge.

A mitre-gauge.