The Roman Collar of Obi Wan Kenobi

One day I was sitting inside my parked car entering an address into my GPS when two dark images entered my peripheral vision. I looked up and saw two Catholic priests dressed in their long black cassocks walking in front of me holding their cups of Big Shoulders coffee. As they walked to nearby St. John Cantius Church, I was struck how the swaying of their cassocks contrasted the secular hustle and bustle of the surrounding Chicago streets. The scene would’ve made a perfect meme with the caption “IN the world, but not OF the world.”

This topic of priestly attire emerged again when I recently reunited with an old elementary school friend, who is a priest. When I arrived at his rectory to pick him up for lunch, I was expecting to see him in secular clothing because it wasn’t Sunday. When he appeared in the waiting room, however, he was wearing his Roman collar and dressed as a priest. I later asked him if he wears his Roman collar often, and he replied, “Everyday, I always put it on in the morning.”

Fifty years ago, priests dressing as priests would come to no surprise, but times have changed for the worse. Today, God is literally disappearing before our eyes because of relativism and modernism. Many priests these days unknowingly contribute to this disappearance by not wearing their Roman collar daily. Many don’t realize their preference of secular clothing reduces their full potential to evangelize to the public. It can also contribute to the silent apostasy that Pope John Paul II spoke of. If you think this sounds silly, you might want to consider how a simple Roman collar has changed the life of Sir Alec Guinness, who is better known for his role as Obi Wan Kenobi in Star Wars.

In a wonderful article published by CatholicCulture.org, Rita Reichardt wrote about the actor’s conversion to Catholicism. In it we learn Guinness was born in 1914 in London to an unmarried Agnes Cuffe. His childhood was filled with poverty, brokenness, and poor parenting.

At the age of sixteen, he was confirmed into the Anglican religion, but secretly proclaimed himself an atheist. Despite his atheistic views, Reichardt quotes him as saying, “Certain incidents or sayings in the New Testament would pluck me back, from time to time, to something approaching belief, and I retained a constant interest in religious matters while being ignorant of any theology, but for the most part gave in to adolescent cynicism."

He developed a constant interest in religion, which led him to a journey of multiple religious explorations. Over the next few years he explored and flirted with Presbyterianism, Marxism, Buddhism, Quakerism, and even tarot cards. As for Catholicism, Reichardt quotes his autobiography in where he said, "Tolerance for Catholics, unless one personally knew them, was limited to the sympathetic, although condescending."

One day, he was playing Hamlet at the Old Vic when an Anglican priest visited him in his dressing room. The priest complained that Guinness was blessing himself incorrectly in the play. This encounter turned out to be a step back toward Christianity. He eventually became a practicing Anglican, who often rode his bicycle in the dark to receive communion in a country church.

Later he found himself in a remote village in France, where he took on the character of Father Brown, a drab and delightful Catholic priest invented by G.K. Chesterton. One evening Guinness, still in costume, was on his way back to his lodgings. A little boy, mistaking him for a real thing, grabbed his hand and trustingly accompanied the "priest."

That incident affected Guinness. "Continuing my walk," he said, "I reflected that a Church that could inspire such confidence in a child, making priests, even when unknown, so easily approachable, could not be as scheming or as creepy as so often made out. I began to shake off my long-taught, long-absorbed prejudices." This experience led him to the Catholic Church where he experienced the blessing of his son being cured of a serious illness, and his conversion to the Catholic Faith.

Each time I see a priest wearing his Roman collar, I make sure to personally thank him. If possible, I will even buy him a cup of coffee or give him a small Dunkin Donuts gift card. Our outward appreciation is a great way of reminding them how important such a simple thing as a Roman collar can be. It also encourages them to be courageous in a world still dealing with the pains of horrific priest scandals caused by a minority of evil priests.

In the recent Star Wars 7 movie, (spoiler alert) Hans Solo makes the statement, “It’s true. All of it. The Dark Side, the Jedi. They’re real.” Well, the same is true about the Holy Ghost, the Catholic Church, the communion of Saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and life everlasting. When we thank a priest for wearing his Roman collar, we are also professing our belief in the one true and apostolic Church.