Legislating for Religious Millinery

The Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster applied to the Civil Registration Service in order to be recognized as a religious body. Where the application requested a description of their form of worship, the Church stated that they “teach while wearing colander based headwear”. The Civil Registration Service rejected the application because of this answer, saying that it “lacks credibility”.

In Christus Dominus, the 1965 Papal Decree on Bishops, Pope Paul VI stated that “Bishops … have been made true and authentic teachers of the faith”. Teaching therefore must be a credible form of worship, since the Roman Catholic Church has been accepted by the Civil Registration Service. However, it is unclear why teaching while wearing unconventional millinery is viewed by the Civil Registration Service as an entirely acceptable form of worship for Roman Catholic clergy, while a very similar form of worship is not acceptable for other Churches. Whatever the reason, we have a Minister for Social Protection who is not only legislating to ban white jump suits with tassels from weddings but also applying different laws to different citizens, based only on subjective opinions about their hats.