Is it that important to wear a suit to Church?

[Mernoc]

the suit is pretty much world wide now really

[introibo]

If by suit, you mean matched jacket and pants, it's not necessary.  But I'd say a shirt and tie with pants are a decent minimum.  Or in winter, a sweater is fine in lieu of the shirt and tie.  When people start complaining  about not wanting to dress up for Sunday Mass, I say this:  what would you wear to a wedding?  A wedding  is, granted, a once in a lifetime event, very important.  And you dress appropriately.  But a Mass is all the more important!

 

Christina

[MikeSearson]

I wear a toga since I'm a Roman Catholic.

[CaroleK]

My husband wears dress slacks, dress shirt and tie.  But he does not generally wear a suit.
 
  Though we both agree that shirt (with long sleeves) and tie is the bare  minimum neither of us beleives that a suit is always necessary. I think  as long as you are not wearing jeans, shorts (unless perhaps you live  in Bermuda where shorts are considered to be acceptable even as formal  attire), t-shirts or other casual attire this is a matter of personal  conviction.
 
 

[HMiS]

In Europe there exists modest, tasteful "classical" jeans too.

 

I do not wear it, but I have seen some wearing it. It was not immodest.

 

I don't like people focussing on external things. As long as people do not hop around in holiday beach clothing, or very tight leather things etc. suggestive of sin, I think everything should be allowed. From African dresses for women to eskimo suits for men.

 

I wear formal shoes, casual but classical trousers, an expensive pull over, and a shirt. Sometimes a tie, but not always, as I start to sweat massively with one on.

[Spooky7272]

I think the Fisheaters guide on Attire and Etiquette sums it all up quite nicely:
 

 Finally, don't assume the ill-dressed even have better clothes or were  in the circumstance of being able to access better clothes (maybe  they'd been in an hospital waiting room all night, who knows? None of  your business!). While we do owe our Lord our best, the Mass  isn't a fashion show, and we've lost the Christian message entirely if  we are are "like to whited sepulchres, which outwardly appear to men  beautiful but within are full of dead men's bones and of all  filthiness" -- which sitting in judgement of other people without  knowing their situation and acting like holier-than-thou Pharisees  would make us.

 

[Mornac]

I'd take that back because it's only ever been the accepted apparel of (human) respect in the united States and not in the whole Western world.

 

Okay milkman, I'm always willing to learn something. In which countries of the Western world has the suit never been accepted apparel of respect.

[Sophia]

The suit is definitely not merely a sign of fifties-ism human respect.  That eighty year old man remembers a time when no one would dare go anywhere- even grocery shopping, even the beach, in sweats and a T-shirt.  Our clothing reflects our inner disposition, all elitism aside.  Even people who were dirt poor had special clothes for Sunday.  It's not about being a fashion plate- it is about charity and respect for God.

If a man has the means to wear a suit, he should wear one.  Would you go to a wedding in anything less?  To meet the president?  Maybe people don't even dress up for weddings anymore- it used to be insulting to the couple to show up in anything less than your "Sunday best."

 

A collared shirt should be the bare minimum for Sunday Church.  A suit is not necessary, no, but you are in the presence of God and higher standards apply.  The best that is within your means, without being flamboyant, should be what you wear.  That's just a little social convention that comes as a remnant of Christian civilization. 

 

Yes, standards have changed, but not for the better.  I find it odd that you think a suit is "old-fashioned."  It is still the standard for men's dress anywhere. 

[gilbertgea]

mistman:

'Why should we emulate the fashions of a Non-Catholic age?'

Catholicmilkman:
'For one there are puritanistic/jansenistic "thought-patterns" floating around many SSPX chapels and are a problem. It's a external 1950's perservationism on a Catholic core.'

You're right.  Wear a thong, or a bikini.  That'll show 'em.

 

Pax tecum.

[thecolorandthenoise]

I wear a dress shirt + tie, dress pants, and dress shoes to Mass and a suit on rare occasions. I only have one and dry cleaning is expensive. Plus, I'd like to get a couple years out of it before I have to get a new one. Now, if I were a businessman and I had a closet full of suits (5+), I'd most likely wear one every Sunday.

I believe God is more pleased by the well meaning person wearing shorts to a NO Mass than He is by a puffed up Pharisee who diligently assists at the TLM, but spends the whole Mass scouring the aisles looking for inappropriately dressed people he can condemn.