Miter and Crozier at Civil-Military Ceremony
Date: July 13, 2025
Author: Fr. Edward McNamara, LC
Question: At the end of our national memorial Mass for military service personnel, after the blessing yet before the closing hymn, there is a ceremony in which a wreath is being presented by one of the generals present. We play the Last Post and the national anthem. Since the bishop has already given his blessing, at this point he is wearing the miter and holding the pastoral staff. Should he remove the miter/staff for this ceremony or can keep them? I couldn’t find anything in the ceremonial about this eventuality. A second question regards the difference between holding the crozier with the crook outward or inward. I told the bishop that I am only familiar with holding the crook outward/forward, and then the good man went on to make a distinction between whether you are in your diocese or not, or which part the celebration it is (I think he mentioned something about the Gospel/homily) and so on. I told him that generally a bishop can only use the crozier in his own diocese and that I suspect the distinctions must be from pre-Vatican II days. — S.B., military chaplaincy and episcopal master of ceremonies
Answer: According to the Ceremonial of Bishops, No. 59:
“The bishop carries the pastoral staff in his own territory as a sign of his pastoral office, but any bishop who, with the consent of the diocesan bishop, solemnly celebrates may use the pastoral staff. When several bishops are present at the same celebration, only the presiding bishop uses the pastoral staff.
“As a rule, the bishop holds the pastoral staff, its curved head turned away from himself and toward the people: as he walks in procession, listens to the gospel reading, and gives the homily; also when receiving religious vows and promises or a profession of faith and when he bestows a blessing on persons, unless the blessing includes the laying
on of hands.”
The consent of the diocesan bishop to use the pastoral staff might be implied, when he gives permission to the visiting bishop to celebrate a rite, such as an ordination, that requires the use of the pastoral staff, or explicit when he allows him to celebrate a Mass or other rite with a certain solemnity.
In all cases the crozier is used facing outward.
It does seem that in the past there were some places in which prelates who were not bishops (for example, territorial abbots or apostolic prefects) would use the crozier facing inward. From this it might have become customary that a bishop outside of his diocese would also carry the crozier facing inward.
Some Anglicans and Episcopalians also follow this custom with respect to the crozier.
However, regarding this point, Catholic liturgical law before the Second Vatican Council was the same as the present law in making no distinction with respect to the bishop. This can be seen in Acta Apostolicae Sedis 4 (1912) 178 and 181 and in volume VI, appendix II, no. 4355,3°, of the Decreta Authentica of the Sacred Congregation of Rites.
The question posed in 1911 was basically the same as that of our reader, and the response was that found in the Ceremonial of Bishops: The crozier is always facing away from himself and toward the people or place he faces. The bishop usually carries the staff in his left hand, leaving his right hand free for blessing.
A few years before this official reply we already find this in the Catholic Encyclopedia (1908):
“The crosier is symbol of authority and jurisdiction. This idea is clearly expressed in the words of the Roman Pontifical with which the staff is presented to the bishop elect: ‘Accipe baculum pastoralis officii; et sis in corrigendis vitiis pie saeviens, judicium sine irâ tenens, in fovendis virtutibus auditorum animos mulcens, in tranquillitate severitatis censuram non deserens’ (Pont. Rom. 77). It is then, as Durandus (Rationale Divin. Off., III, xv) says, borne by prelates to signify their authority to correct vices, stimulate piety, administer punishment, and thus rule and govern with a gentleness that is tempered with severity. The same author goes on to say that, as the rod of Moses was the seal and emblem of his Divine commission as well as the instrument of the miracles he wrought, so is the episcopal staff the symbol of that doctrinal and disciplinary power of bishops in virtue of which they may sustain the weak and faltering, confirm the wavering in faith, and lead back the erring ones into the true fold. Barbosa (Pastoralis Sollicitudinis, etc., Tit. I, ch. v), alluding to the prevalent form of the staff, says that the end is sharp and pointed wherewith to prick and goad the slothful, the middle is straight to signify righteous rule, while the head is bent or crooked in order to draw in and attract souls to the ways of God. Bona (Rerum liturgic., I, xxiv) says the crosier is to bishops what the sceptre is to kings. In deference to this symbolism bishops always carry the crosier with the crook turned outwards, while inferior prelates hold it with the head reversed. Moreover, the crosiers of abbots are not so large as episcopal crosiers, and are covered with a veil when the bishop is present.”
With respect to the first question, there is practically nothing written in the official documents that can orient us. At most, the indication found in the Ceremonial of Bishops that that the bishop holds the pastoral staff “when he bestows a blessing on persons, unless the blessing includes the laying on of hands.”
This is because the closest analogy that I can think of is when the Holy Father imparts the Urbi et Orbi blessings. The Mass has concluded and the Pope, either from St. Peter’s Square or the balcony of the basilica, retains the miter and papal pastoral staff, while the bands play the Italian and Vatican national anthems.
The case described by our correspondent has some similarities. The bishop has already blessed the assembly although it is not clear if the deacon has proclaimed the dismissal and the bishop has kissed the altar.
If the bishop has already kissed the altar, then, even though the closing hymn is yet to be sung, what follows is primarily a civil-military ceremony that does not form part of the Mass as such.
In that case I would say that, lacking any liturgical indications for such a moment, the bishop would best defer to the civil and military protocol used for this ceremony.
If the high-ranking officers retain their official headgear during the wreath ceremony and the singing of the national anthem, then the bishop should keep the miter and pastoral staff while awaiting the ceremony to conclude. If, however, it is customary to remove headgear during the anthem, it would be best to defer to national civil and military practice.
In the case that the bishop has yet to kiss the altar, I think that he could best retain miter and pastoral staff during the ceremony unless he considers that it would be best to defer to prevalent civil customs.
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