Why don't priests wear the maniple?

Carthusian Nun

wearing stole and maniple.

Quick answer:  Wearing the maniple is optional.

I know.  So the priest doesn't have to wear the maniple* anymore?  But, but it has never been abrogated or banned.  (Neither has the head-covering for women.)  But I want him to.  I can't pray if he doesn't wear it.  I'm distracted all through Mass.  As soon as he processes in, I notice if he is not wearing it and for the rest of the Mass I keep looking for more liturgical abuses...

If only the SSPX celebrated a good Novus Ordo!...  Oh wait!  I think they ...

In a surprise move, the followers of the late Archbishop Marcel Lefevbre in the Society of St. Pius X, have issued a document creating within their ranks an “ordinariate” for Catholics who wish to celebrate the Novus Ordo according to the official rubrics.
According to the press release, the SSPX saw the need to provide a refuge for priests and lay faithful alike to preserve the few vestiges of Catholic identity they retained in the midst of their modernist errors. - WDTPRSNEWS.COM – Ecône, Switzerland
 

Song for this post here.



*The maniple is a liturgical vestment used primarily within the Catholic Church, and occasionally used by some Anglo-Catholic and Lutheran clergy. It is an embroidered band of silk or similar fabric that when worn hangs from the left arm. It is only used within the context of the Mass, and it is of the same liturgical colour as the other Mass vestments.^[1]