Readers here will know as well as I do that there can often be a debate about "externals" within ecclesial circle. We here have often approached this question emphasizing the "both/and" nature of this and the evangelical power of beauty. The NYT writer adds another perspective to it:
Whether the new pope will turn out to be a sartorial minimalist is perhaps not the chief concern of a church in considerable turmoil. Yet given the increasing potency of image in an Instagram age, the new pope could do worse than to take a cue from the queen of England, another of the world’s enduring symbolic figures, and a woman who gives careful thought to her working wardrobe.
