Since a protestant group is taking over the other half of the main hotel, [....]
Would an energetic heart-felt "
Boo! Hiss! be unacceptably uncharitable? Never mind
Nostra Aetate and its ilk, right?
[...] it might be a good idea for the Catholics to wear something that identifies them as Catholics, so when you see someone in the hallway, lobby, etc. you know if it's "one of ours" or not. It would help in the area of meeting new Trad Catholics, socializing, etc. Maybe a particular color, maybe [..] something. At least wear this around the hotel -- you can tuck it back under your shirt when you get to St. Athanasius Chapel where everyone is Catholic. It should be something simple, something EVERYONE can do, and something all types of people would be willing to do -- the young and the old, the rich and the poor, the sophisticated and the down-to-earth, the extremely macho male and extremely dainty female. But most importantly, it has to work for the introvert and the extrovert.
Hmmm. I received my inspiration only within the last few hours, but be that as it may: As nearly all of us traditional Catholics know, the cassock color for a bishop is
purple (or black with purple trim, but let's not get too fussy). What most probably don't know is that the
heraldic color for a bishop's
crest is a surprising
green.
So, perhaps, a
purple or green t-shirt printed with either Bp.-elect Zendejas' coat-of-arms (a
low-res screen-scraping if need be, altho' His Excellency-Elect might be reserving its unveiling for his day of consecration), or just his
motto (untranslated from the Latin, the better to befuddle the Protestants and assist recognition by fellow traditional Catholics). Or just an illustration of the broad-brimmed tasseled heraldic
crest (don't use Abp. Lefebvre's
crest: as an archbishop, he was assigned
more tassels than those to which Bp. Williamson & Bp.-Elect Zendejas are entitled), or failing that, a mitre, either 1 also bearing the date of consecration. White ink on purple or green fabric might look really good [×].
For easier donning & doffing, a traditional
basketball-jersey style generic knit shirt (is that what's called an "A-shirt" or "H-shirt"?) could be worn as an
overshirt, especially by women for whom the mostly-bare arms of a t-shirt might be considered objectionably
immodest.
The only issues I see right now are these:
• Dwindling lead time for printing: probably no more than an octave (containing only 1 weekend) by the time most interested people read this;
• Cost for small quantities that might be a barrier to those people objectively categorized as "
poor" (e.g., on
fixed incomes that sharply limit discretionary spending);
• possible transfer of unset dye in a new colored overshirt that no one had time for a, um, prophyl@ctic laundering before wearing; and
• the previous issue in combination with an inability to rule out unseasonably warm weather (altho' it's
August in the Washington Metropolitan Area that's
the unbearably hot & humid month--and I write as a
Floridan who's experienced plenty of "hot & humid").
It could've been fun to see what could've been done with these ideas (and others like them), had there only been more lead time. Sigh.
-------
Note ×: I try to avoid commemorative t-shirts that are printed on white fabric; ponder fumbled BBQ sauce, chili, mustard. But sometimes there are no practical (time, cost, or schedule) alternatives to white fabric.