Colour Symbolism of Catholic Priests’ Chasuble

The Catholic church has different costumes for different categories of their priests. Though these costumes are used regularly in the church, to what extend do the congregation observe and understand the colours used in these costumes? This study aims at finding the colours used in the Catholic priests’ chasuble, their symbolic meanings and uses in the Catholic church. The study adopted concurrent mixed-method approach. Cluster, convenience and purposive sampling techniques were used to select a total of 124 respondents consisting of four (4) priests and twenty(20) ordinary church members from four (4) catholic churches in the Cape Coast metropolis. Structured questionnaire and semi-structured interview guide were used to gather two different datasets concurrently and analysed them using SPSS and thematic analysis. The findings revealed that, the chasuble is only used by priests in the orthodox churches and colour cream, white, green, purple and red are the common colours used in the chasuble. The findings further indicated that, the colours have varying symbolic meanings and uses in the Catholic church and majority of the respondents have adequate knowledge on the priest chasuble, however, few of the respondents did not have knowledge on the colours used in the chasuble. The study therefore recommends that; the church must intensify the teaching of its doctrines to the congregation. Teachings on the chasuble must also be integrated into Sunday school lessons and youth bible studies. The Catholic church must also organize quizze competitions among the children and youth of the church and design posters containing the colours used in the chasuble, their symbolic meanings and specific use(s) in the Catholic church.