The Rev. George Schmidt says he’s never been one for routinely wearing cassocks, and he’s not about to start now.
Still, several of the close-fitting, ankle-length robes are being tailored for him.
For Schmidt, pastor of the Basilica of Sts. Peter and Paul Catholic Church for the past 25 years, they now come with the territory of being a monsignor.
He and two other priests with Chattanooga ties, the Rev. Bob Hofstetter, former longtime pastor of St. Jude Church, and the Rev. Pat Garrity, onetime priest at Notre Dame High School, were given the titles late last week by Bishop Richard F. Stika of the Diocese of Knoxville with the approval of Pope Benedict XVI.
“If you had asked me last Friday why I was having dinner with the bishop,” said Schmidt, “I would have said it was because he asked me.”