Priestly garments

Throughout history, popes have prayed for, taught, and, according to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, set fashion trends for their parishioners. An exhibit planned this spring at the museum in New York will showcase some of the Vatican’s poshest priestly garb, including a white silk cape embroidered with gold thread that belonged to Pope Benedict XV and an emerald, sapphire, and diamond-studded miter of Pope Leo XIII.

Fashion designer Donatella Versace and Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour attended a preview of the exhibit, called “Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination,” in Rome last month. The museum has posted images of some of the papal vestments and accessories online.

“Part of the power of the church has been how they look, and how they dress,” Wintour said. “They have this extraordinary presence.” The exhibit also will feature examples of popular fashion inspired by priestly garb.

Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi, the Vatican’s culture minister, told event attendees that God’s clothing of Adam and Eve in Genesis after they disobeyed His command and became ashamed of their nakedness showed the importance of clothes to the Creator: “God Himself was concerned with dressing his creatures.”

Leaders of the Protestant Reformation varied in their opinions on clerical garments, but most of them leaned toward simpler dress than what the priests of the day wore. Martin Luther and John Calvin wore simple black academic robes, now known as the “Geneva gown,” which would have been a familiar if not daily wardrobe item for many Reformers who came from academic circles. Luther once joked that a preacher could wear three sets of vestments if one was not enough, “for such matters, if free from abuses, take from or give to the gospel nothing: only they must not be thought necessary to salvation, and the conscience dare not be bound to them,” according to the Encyclopedia of Protestantism.

In Matthew 6:28-30, Jesus teaches that God does care about clothing, but people should not be overly concerned with it: “Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?”

Apology accepted

About a month after her derision of Vice President Mike Pence and his Christian beliefs ignited viewer backlash, Joy Behar, host of The View, apologized on air for her remarks.

“I was raised to respect everyone’s religious faith, and I fell short of that,” the comedian said on the ABC daytime program this week. “I sincerely apologize for what I said.”

Her on-air statement followed a private apology to Pence. In an interview with Sean Hannity of the Fox News Channel, Pence confirmed Behar had called him.

“I felt it was important that I defend the faith of tens of millions of Americans against that kind of slander,” Pence said. “And I did so. And you know, I give Joy Behar a lot of credit. She picked up the phone. She called me. She was very sincere, and she apologized, and one of the things my faith teaches me is grace; forgive as you’ve been forgiven.”

After Behar said on air Feb. 13 that Pence’s faith compared with mental illness, the Media Research Center launched a campaign that resulted in some 40,000 protest phone calls to ABC, said Brett Bozell, the organization’s president.

“The apology is appropriate,” he said. “One wishes she never said it, and one wishes she had apologized the moment she realized how many people she offended. But she did and it should be accepted.” —L.L.

Establishing a pattern

A judge ruled Thursday that five women who have accused Bill Cosby of sexual assault can testify at his upcoming retrial. Cosby faces charges in the alleged drugging and molestation of Andrea Constand in 2004, but scores of other women say he treated them similarly over the years. A judge declared a mistrial in the Constand case last year when jurors could not reach a verdict.

Judge Steven O’Neill allowed one of Constand’s fellow accusers to testify at last year’s trial and barred any mention of others. Now he says prosecutors can select from a list of eight women and question them about the comedian’s possible behavior patterns. The list includes model Janice Dickinson, who said Cosby knocked her out with pills and raped her during a 1982 trip to Lake Tahoe. Dickinson is suing Cosby for defamation in California, where the state Supreme Court on Thursday let stand an appellate ruling that her case can proceed.

Cosby’s lawyers argued in court that hearing from other accusers would prejudice the jury, which is only considering Constand’s case.

“It just shows how desperate they are and that this is a very weak case,” Cosby spokesman Andrew Wyatt said. “Mr. Cosby is innocent of these charges.” —L.L.

In memory

Fashion designer Hubert de Givenchy died last weekend at age 91. He is credited with transforming the “little black dress” into an icon of fashion by dressing Audrey Hepburn in one for the 1961 movie Breakfast at Tiffany’s. The office of French President Emmanuel Macron praised Givenchy as a designer whose name became an emblem for French elegance, with one principle: “to respect and celebrate the woman’s body.” —L.L.