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In Midnight Mass, Father Paul wears the wrong color vestments for his first sermon. He wore his more formal vestments instead of his usual green? I feel this was used as a plot device to alert viewers that something isn't quite right with Father Paul. Since it's later revealed that Father Paul is more experienced than he originally told his parish, wouldn't he have known to wear the correct robes?

My only hypothesis for this is that he considered his first sermon since his transformation to be special and chose the formal robes to celebrate this.

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  • It's been forever, but as best I recall the colour is dictated by the calendar. To make an example up, Pentecost specifically would be red, but the following weeks would be green. Are you sure it wasn't a situation like that? Commented yesterday
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    I had to look up my texts to my Catholic friend from back when I watched this show, but to add context to the question he was wearing a gold chasuble during ordinary time (should be green). I don't remember enough to offer my own interpretation of this though. Commented 23 hours ago

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Father Paul explained it in the show itself:

In the first episode (Genesis), he says that he couldn't find the right one:

Bev Keane: Can I ask you something?
Forgive me, I don’t mean to… It’s just you’re wearing a gold chasuble today. Isn’t that for feast days and special… Shouldn’t it be green today? We’re in Ordinary Time. It’s the seventh Sunday of Ordinary Time.
Father Paul: No, I’m afraid I wasn’t able to locate the green chasuble this morning. Perhaps Monsignor Pruitt, he stored it somewhere unusual given his mental state before he left.

But in the last episode (Revelation), when Father Frank reveals that he is in fact de-aged Monsignor Pruitt, he explains that it was done on purpose:

Erin: You weren’t sick when you got here. You weren’t confused. You knew exactly where everything was in that sacristy. he green vestments were right where they always were.
Father Paul / Monsignor Pruitt: (small smile, almost proud) That’s right.
Erin: You wore gold on purpose. That first Mass. Gold instead of green.
Father Paul / Monsignor Pruitt: Gold is the color of resurrection. Gold is the color of Easter.
Gold is the color worn when we celebrate… a rebirth. I had been reborn, Erin. In that cave. I had seen the angel. I had drunk from the cup. And I wanted everyone to see it on me the moment I stepped out there. I wanted them to feel it before they even understood what they were feeling. It wasn’t a mistake. It was a declaration.

So as you can see, Frank/Pruitt wore the vestment that is usually worn on Easter, celebrating the rebirth of Christ, because just like Jesus, Frank was celebrating his own rebirth and, in his mind, the rebirth of the Church that the "angel" will bring with him to the community.

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In Ordinary Time (the numbered weeks between Christ's baptism and Ash Wednesday, and again following Pentecost to the beginning of Advent), masses held on the memorial days of martyrs will use red vestments, and masses on the feast days of saints will use white. In the U.S. dioceses gold is permitted instead of white and is especially used for important feasts.

Since Ash Wednesday can land between February 4th and March 10th, there are a number of possible days where a mass might be conducted in gold vestments. If we consider the 2025 liturgical calendar, the feast day of the apostle St. Peter (February 22nd) occurs a week and a half before Ash Wednesday, and as the feast day of a major saint would almost definitely be observed with a mass using gold vestments. (In a year where Ash Wednesday fell early in February, the feast day of the Presentation of the Lord on February 2nd could similarly be observed using gold vestments.)

Thus the use of gold vestments merely suggests a mass on the feast day of a saint, and not an actual error.

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    You would be right, but the show explains that the "mistake" was actually made on purpose. Commented 8 hours ago

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