Can the Pope Wear Ordinary Clothes? Why the Pope Wears White, and When He Doesn’t

No Church law forbids the pope from wearing ordinary clothes. He is the Church’s supreme legislator (canon 331), and the general rule that clerics wear suitable dress is set by bishops’ conferences and local custom (canon 284), with no special papal dress law in the Code itself. In practice, popes almost always wear the white cassock — a centuries-old custom often credited to the Dominican Pope St Pius V, though it is actually older than him. Popes have been seen in ordinary clothes, most famously St John Paul II hiking and skiing. They wear white because the cassock is a public sign of their office and the Church’s unity, not because a rule forces them to.

The short answer

Can he? Yes. Nothing in canon law singles out the pope’s everyday wardrobe or requires him personally to wear white. Does he? Almost always in public, though rarely without exception. Why not simply dress like anyone else? Not because of a rule, but because of meaning and custom built up over centuries — the white cassock has become the instantly recognizable sign of the man who holds the office of Peter.

What the law says (and doesn’t)

The Code of Canon Law addresses clerical dress in general, but it does not single out the pope. Canon 284 directs clerics to wear “suitable ecclesiastical dress in accordance with the norms established by the conference of bishops and legitimate local customs” — the specifics are left to bishops’ conferences and to custom, not spelled out in universal detail by the Code itself. There is no separate canon requiring the pope, specifically, to wear a white cassock, or forbidding him from wearing anything else.

What the Code does define clearly is the scope of the pope’s authority. Canon 331 states that, as Bishop of Rome and successor of St Peter, the pope holds “supreme, full, immediate and universal ordinary power in the Church, and he can always freely exercise this power.” Since this power is his by virtue of office, and dress questions are left to conferences and custom rather than fixed by universal law, the pope is not bound by any special papal dress statute — strictly by canon law, he could dress differently than he does.

What actually governs papal dress, in practice, is custom: centuries of tradition, plus the norms followed by the Office of Papal Liturgical Celebrations for liturgical vesture specifically. One relevant piece of this backdrop is a 1969 instruction from the Vatican Secretariat of State (commonly referred to by its opening words, “Ut sive sollicite”) that simplified the elaborate dress previously worn by cardinals, bishops and other prelates — trimming trains and ornamentation across the board. It’s a reminder that even prelatial dress has been adjusted by administrative decision within living memory; it is custom, not an unchangeable law, that shapes what churchmen wear.

Why white? The real history

Ask most people why the pope wears white and you’ll likely hear: “Pius V was a Dominican, and Dominicans wear white habits, so he just kept wearing his own.” It’s a tidy story with a grain of truth — but it isn’t the origin of the custom.

The earliest popes were not distinguished chiefly by white at all, but by red. The papal mantle and mozzetta (a short cape) were red, tied symbolically to martyrdom and the Passion of Christ. Solemn investiture with a red mantle is attested from the eleventh century onward, and for a long stretch of history red — not white — was the color most associated with the pope’s public appearance.

White under that red, however, is attested much earlier than Pius V. Two sources — Aleteia’s historical reporting and EWTN’s — independently trace an early ceremonial use of the white cassock to the thirteenth century, around Pope Gregory X (reigned 1271–1276), with a papal ceremonial manual from about 1274 (the Ordo XIII) explicitly naming the white cassock as daily papal wear — three centuries before Pius V’s pontificate (1566–1572). So when St Pius V, a Dominican friar, became pope and kept wearing a white habit-like cassock, he was not inventing anything. He was, at most, reinforcing an already-existing practice. The correction matters: Pius V strengthened a custom; he did not start it.

As for why white and red carried these meanings, the classic explanation traces to William Durandus (also Durand, or Duranti), a thirteenth-century bishop and liturgical writer. Two independent accounts of his interpretation agree on the substance: white signified innocence and charity, while red — worn over or alongside it — pointed to compassion and to the blood of Christ’s Passion, of which the pope, as Vicar of Christ, was seen as a visible reminder. It’s a genuinely old, frequently repeated reading, best held as a well-attested traditional interpretation rather than a claim checkable word-for-word against Durandus’s original Latin.

A quick guide to what the pope wears

Papal dress is really several distinct layers, each with its own history and purpose. Here is a quick guide to the main pieces.

• The white cassock (simar). The basic daily garment, worn with a shoulder cape (pellegrina) and white sash (fascia), sometimes bearing the pope’s coat of arms — the everyday papal “uniform” most people picture.
• The zucchetto. A small skullcap whose color marks ecclesiastical rank: white for the pope, red for cardinals, violet for bishops — a simple, practical way to identify rank at a glance.
• The pectoral cross and the Fisherman’s Ring. Signs of office; the ring has traditionally been associated with the pope’s authority and, historically, with sealing documents.
• The red mozzetta and stole, for formal occasions. This cape-and-stole combination is traditionally worn for solemn appearances, including a new pope’s first greeting from St Peter’s loggia. Pope Francis chose not to wear it at his 2013 first appearance, breaking with most twentieth-century predecessors; Pope Leo XIV wore it at his own first appearance on 8 May 2025. Each is best read as that pope’s personal choice in the moment, not proof of a settled reversal or a permanent new norm.
• Shoes. Red papal shoes have old roots and were revived under Benedict XVI, while Francis generally wore ordinary black shoes. Both are examples of personal choice within a flexible custom, not a “correct” versus “wrong” answer.
• Liturgical vestments. Items like the chasuble, pallium and mitre are a separate category entirely — vesture worn specifically for the liturgy, governed by its own tradition and by the norms of the Office of Papal Liturgical Celebrations. They should not be confused with everyday dress.

Popes in ordinary clothes

Despite the strength of the white-cassock custom, popes have appeared in ordinary clothes — and the most famous, best-documented example by far is St John Paul II. An avid outdoorsman, he was photographed hiking and skiing in ordinary sportswear rather than clerical dress. One well-known outing took place in July 1984, when he skied at the Adamello glacier in the Italian Alps with Italy’s then-President, Sandro Pertini — an excursion meant to stay private that became public knowledge, and remains a well-documented case of a pope choosing practical clothing for a practical activity.

Beyond such public outings, it is reasonable to assume popes, like other priests, wear simpler clothing in private moments — resting, exercising, or otherwise out of the public eye. That’s not scandalous; it’s the same common-sense logic that governs any priest’s wardrobe outside active ministry. What isn’t responsible is asserting specific details about any particular pope’s private wardrobe without solid evidence, so this article notes the general principle without inventing particulars.

One more note: in 2023, an AI-generated image of Pope Francis in a white puffer jacket went viral, fooling many into believing it was real. It was AI-generated and spread widely before being debunked — a useful reminder to verify striking images of public figures before sharing them.

Why popes still choose the white cassock

If nothing in canon law requires it, why do popes keep choosing white? A few reasons recur in how the Church and its observers describe the custom. First, it is a visible, instantly recognizable sign of office and of the Church’s unity — in a crowd of thousands, or in a photograph seen worldwide, the white cassock identifies one man as the Bishop of Rome. Second, the pope, like any bishop or priest, is understood to be “always on duty” as a pastor — his public dress is part of how he represents his office, not merely a private wardrobe choice.

At the same time, this has to be balanced against a real spiritual danger: dressing for show. In the Douay-Rheims text of Matthew’s Gospel, Christ warns against the scribes and Pharisees precisely because “all their works they do for to be seen of men” (Matt 23:5) — a warning any Christian in a visible position, including a pope, has reason to take seriously. Several recent popes have leaned toward simplifying rather than adding to papal display. The clearest example is Pope Paul VI, who on 13 November 1964, during the Second Vatican Council, laid aside the elaborate papal tiara altogether, placing it on the altar and later having it sold for the poor. No pope has worn a tiara since — a concrete case of a pope choosing simplicity over display.

Finally, there is Christ’s own example. At the Last Supper, the Douay-Rheims text of John’s Gospel says Jesus “riseth from supper, and layeth aside his garments, and having taken a towel, girded himself” (John 13:4) before washing his disciples’ feet (John 13:5) — laying aside the outward signs of status to serve. The point is not that popes should abandon distinctive dress, but that whatever is worn should point toward service rather than self-display. The clothes exist to serve the office, and the office exists to serve the Church, not the reverse.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is it a sin for the pope to wear jeans?

No. No law of the Church forbids it. Whether the pope wears jeans, ordinary clothes, or the white cassock in a given moment is a matter of prudence and custom, not moral obligation.

Why does the pope wear a white skullcap?

The skullcap, called a zucchetto, uses color to mark rank throughout the Church’s hierarchy. White is reserved for the pope, red for cardinals, and violet for bishops.

Did Pius V start the white cassock?

No, not originally. He strengthened an already-existing custom rather than inventing it. White papal dress is attested at least three centuries earlier, in the era around Pope Gregory X in the 1270s.

Do cardinals and bishops have dress rules too?

Yes. Like priests, cardinals and bishops are bound by canon 284, which points to the norms set by their bishops’ conference and to legitimate local custom, rather than to one single universal rule spelled out in the Code itself. (If terms like this send you down a rabbit hole of Catholic vocabulary, you may also want to know why some people find “papist” an offensive way to describe the pope’s flock.)

A closing image: white as snow

Scripture offers the deepest reason white carries such weight in the Church’s imagination. At the Transfiguration, the Douay-Rheims text of Matthew’s Gospel says Christ’s “garments became white as snow” (Matt 17:2) as his glory broke through for his apostles to see. And in the Apocalypse, the countless multitude before God’s throne are those who “have washed their robes, and have made them white in the blood of the Lamb” (Apoc 7:14) — white, in the Church’s symbolic vocabulary, ultimately points not to any one man’s office but to Christ himself, and to every soul purified by him. Seen that way, the pope’s white cassock is less a statement about the man wearing it than a quiet reminder that his office exists to point beyond himself, toward Christ and the saints he represents.

Sources

• Code of Canon Law, canon 284 and canon 331 — vatican.va
• Douay-Rheims Bible — Matthew 17:2, Matthew 23:5, John 13:4-5, Apocalypse 7:14 — drbo.org
• Aleteia, “The complex history of why the pope is dressed in white” — aleteia.org
• EWTN, “The Origin and Symbolism of the Pope’s Attire” — ewtn.com
• National Catholic Register, “Pope Leo XIV Dons Traditional Red Mozzetta, Echoing Past Pontiffs” — ncregister.com
• Papal Artifacts, “November 13, 1964: A Story about the Abandonment of Papal Tiaras” — papalartifacts.com
• CBS News, “Fake photos of Pope Francis in a puffer jacket go viral” (2023) — cbsnews.com