Is the CDF's 1976 Inter Insigniores statement on head coverings magisterial, and does it override the requirement?
A viewer points to the 1976 CDF document Inter Insigniores, which calls St. Paul's rule on veils a minor disciplinary practice with no more normative value, and asks whether, since the CDF is magisterial, this trumps Robert's position that head coverings still stand.
Answer
Inter Insigniores sounds very authoritative, but all it is is a statement from the CDF that is really off the cuff. Unless the Church gives us a direct doctrinal statement that says head coverings are no longer an obligation of Catholic women, period, end of story, then it is not a teaching, which makes this off-the-cuff CDF statement not a teaching. Look at the way it is written: it says these ordinances were "probably inspired by the customs of the period." If you are going to purport to be an authority of the Church and give us a doctrinal teaching, do not give me "probably"; do you know this or not? And it calls it a disciplinary matter, but how do you know that? 1 Corinthians 11:1 to 16 is not disciplinary. It does not start with some problem of women throwing their weight around; it starts with the chain of authority, God, then Christ, then Adam, then the woman, and the head covering is a sign that you understand this, that the woman is under the authority of her husband, and it is not her hair. Besides, the CDF is nothing today; Pope Paul VI in 1970 took their authority away, so the CDF, the DDF, whatever acronym you use, does not have any doctrinal authority today; they can suggest things, and the pope and bishops can look at it and say it is good, bad, or indifferent. Maybe that is why they made this thing so ambiguous in 1976, because they knew they had no authority.