Question about a Bishop's Mitre & Crosier

[phil19034]

I was at Mass yesterday at a Parish where an Auxiliary Bishop often celebrates Mass on Sundays. This was the first time I visited that parish when the Auxiliary Bishop was celebrating Mass.

I found it odd that he was not wearing his mitre nor had his crosier. However, I also noticed that there were not enough altar boys.

Might this be the reason? No vimpa-bearers to hold the Mitre and Crosier, so he didn’t use them?

At one point, no altar server was there to take his zucchetto, so the bishop took it off and placed in on the celebrant’s chair.

Thoughts?

 

[Joe_5859]

I was at Mass yesterday at a Parish where an Auxiliary Bishop often celebrates Mass on Sundays. This was the first time I visited that parish when the Auxiliary Bishop was celebrating Mass.

I found it odd that he was not wearing his mitre nor had his crosier. However, I also noticed that there were not enough altar boys.

Might this be the reason? No vimpa-bearers to hold the Mitre and Crosier, so he didn’t use them?

At one point, no altar server was there to take his zucchetto, so the bishop took it off and placed in on the celebrant’s chair.

Thoughts?

You generally do need two extra altar servers just to cover the mitre and crozier duties. They cannot really do anything else while they are holding those items (which they do for much of the Mass). So that could have been the reason. Do auxiliary bishops use the mitre and crozier?

 

[Tarpeian_Rock]

I could be wrong, but I thought that in the setting of a regular weekend parish Mass, an auxiliary bishop would not use the mitre or crozier. For that matter, I thought the crozier was a symbol of the Ordinary’s pastoral authority and that auxiliaries did not use it except on the day of their episcopal ordination and perhaps in a more formal setting if representing the Ordinary.

 

[Michael1978]

It appears that the Auxiliary Bishop does not use the crozier:

He enjoys the same honorific privileges (with a few exceptions, viz. throne, cappa magna, mozzetta, and rochet worn without mantelletta, and crosier), pontifical ornaments, and titles, as does the diocesan.

newadvent.org/cathen/02145b.htm

 

[phil19034]

You generally do need two extra altar servers just to cover the mitre and crozier duties. They cannot really do anything else while they are holding those items (which they do for much of the Mass). So that could have been the reason. Do auxiliary bishops use the mitre and crozier?

I’ve seen them wear Mitres at Confirmations and other official Masses with the Archbishop. And I believe I’ve seen them use croziers at Confirmations. But this was my first “regular weekend” Mass with a Titular Bishop who was not the Ordinary of the Diocese/Archdiocese.

I could be wrong, but I thought that in the setting of a regular weekend parish Mass, an auxiliary bishop would not use the mitre or crozier. For that matter, I thought the crozier was a symbol of the Ordinary’s pastoral authority and that auxiliaries did not use it except on the day of their episcopal ordination and perhaps in a more formal setting if representing the Ordinary.

Perhaps you are correct. That would explain a lot too. He’s now listed on that parish’s bulletin as a “Weekend Assistant.” I was going to ask him after Mass, but a woman was introducing him to her whole family, so I finally just went home.