Pontificals

Catholic bishop with miter , crook , pectoral and ring

Pontifical shoes from the monastery treasure of the former Premonstratensian Abbey of Rüti

Pontificals are in the Roman Catholic Church and other churches

• the insignia reserved for the bishop or dignitaries with their own jurisdiction as well as
• Official acts in which the bishop or dignitary uses miter and staff (also called pontifical acts ).

insignia

Pontifical insignia are:

• the miter or the stephanos ;
• the bishop's staff - often with a spiral curvature , hence the crook - which is a symbol of the pastoral office. The Pope , on the other hand, does not carry a crook, but the ferula , which bears a cross instead of the crook;
• the pectoral ( pectoral cross);
• the bishop's ring (with the Pope: fisherman's ring );
• the pileolus , a small cap-like cap that covers the back of the head (purple for bishops, scarlet red for cardinals, white for the pope). Orders have an independent and arbitrary color order. The pileolus is also known as the submitral because it is often worn under the miter ;
• the pallium , worn by the Metropolitan at Holy Mass when it is held in their ecclesiastical province ;
• the Pontifikaldalmatik , which is mandatory in the episcopal ordination of the elect, otherwise only optional, but especially in the administration of the sacrament is recommended for the donor as an expression of inherent Bishop fullness of the sacrament;
• which today almost only at the celebration of Holy Mass in the Pope Benedict XVI. established extraordinary custom of the Roman rite , insignia of the pontifical tunicella , pontifical gloves , pontifical shoes and stockings worn by those entitled ;
• the special and rarely encountered insignia of the rational , also known as superhumerals .

With the Motu proprio Pontificalia insignia of June 21, 1968, Pope Paul VI wrote. propose that in future the pontificals will only be used by bishops and officials who are comparable to them and who are independently responsible for a particular group, such as abbots. Previously, they had also been given to certain people and holders of special church offices (such as apostolic protonotaries ) and in particular to holders of leadership positions in cathedral and collegiate chapters ( cathedral provost and cathedral dean ). This practice has flowed into many representations of church heraldry.

Former Anglican bishops who appointed a Catholic Church of the Anglican tradition on the basis of the Constitution Anglicanorum coetibus Benedict XVI. have joined the staff ordinariate established can ask the Apostolic See for permission to continue to use the episcopal insignia.

Official acts

With pontificalia is also referred to official acts of the bishop in which he uses according to the liturgical rule miter and staff. This is particularly the case with

• Pontifical offices in which the bishop celebrates or at least preaches or gives the episcopal blessing
• Ordination actions, such as the diaconate , priesthood , episcopal ordination , receipt solemn vows , virginal consecration , consecration , altar consecration
• the giving of confirmation .

The performance of these rites are described in the pontifical and in the caeremoniale episcoporum .

See also

• Inful

literature

• Philipp Hofmeister : The pontifical privilege more Abbatum. In: Liturgical Yearbook. Jg. 1, 1951, ISSN  0024-5100 , pp. 75-101; Vol. 2, 1952, pp. 15-43.
• Wolfgang Buchmüller : The insignia of the pontifical liturgy in their cultural-historical and spiritual context. In: Forum Catholic Theology. Vol. 27, 2011, ISSN  0178-1626 , pp. 129-146.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Latin text: http://w2.vatican.va/content/paul-vi/la/motu_proprio/documents/hf_p-vi_motu-proprio_19680621_pontificalia-insignia.html .