On Wearing a Hat in the Church during Mass as a Woman

Today at Mass I noticed a woman wearing a hat during the service. It was not a veil, it was clearly a hat. I did not know this, but it seems that John Paul II updated the protocol on hats in 1983 for both men and women.

I will never wear a hat in church as a man out of my own choice. Despite it not being against church protocol, I don’t think other men should wear hats in church either since it is ambiguous for now as to what it means. However, I have come to learn that based on this update, for women a hat is viewed as a sign of submission (the same as a veil). Perhaps we could view it as an optional sign of submission for men too when they wear a hat in church until the Pope clarifies the matter?

I almost spoke up to this woman to ask her to remove her hat today, but considered it the place of the priest in the church to provide guidance. It is important for the wider church body to defend the church, but on something simple like this the question can be posed to the church leader first. In the case of the Catholic Church, that is Pope Leo XIV.

Even small matters at Mass like this are a discussion first because the Catholic Church is not and has never been like the Anglican Church, where the king is explicitly head of the secular government and the church at the same time. There have of course been tensions between Catholic royalty and the Pope in the course of history, but those have all been mostly resolved through discussion and collaboration. We should all pray that any tensions never have to move beyond discussion, and that if those tensions ever did so in Rome it would only to be to quickly restore order back to the old two thrones approach.

King Charles’ return to Rome and the two thrones approach in 2025 was a surprise, but history happens that way. A miraculous conversion, with the sitting King of England submitting to leadership from Rome and the Pope through prayer and a visit to the Vatican. If that is not what he meant by the visit and the chair at St Paul’s Outside the Walls, then he should clarify this for everyone because by all appearances to me and others, it is true. May our Lord God in heaven bless him for having the humility to return and begin repair of a 500-year-old fracture.

So, it seems that this lady’s hat at Mass was nothing to be concerned about. Thank you lady, whoever you are, for showing submission to Christ and the Church with your hat instead of veil.