The mozzetta is a short elbow-length cape that covers the shoulders and is buttoned over the breast. It is worn over the rochet or cotta as part of choir dress by some of the clergy of the Catholic Church, among them the Pope, cardinals, bishops, abbots, canons and religious superiors. There used to be a small hood on the back of the mozzette of bishops and cardinals, but this was discontinued by Pope Paul VI. The hood, however, was retained in the mozzette of certain canons and abbots, and also in the Popes'.
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The colour of the mozzetta, which is always worn with a cassock and sometimes other choral vestments, represents the hierarchical rank of the person wearing it. Cardinals wear a scarlet mozzetta, while bishops and those with equivalent jurisdiction (e.g., apostolic administrators, vicars apostolic, exarchs, prefects apostolic, territorial prelates, and territorial abbots, if not bishops) wear a purple mozzetta. Rectors of basilicas and some canons wear a black mozzetta with red piping and buttons. The mozzetta is not worn by simple priests. Some religious orders have a mozzetta as part of their religious habit: the Canons Regular of the Austrian Congregation wear a purple mozzetta; their confreres in the Congregation of St. Maurice wear a red mozzetta; the Congregation of Holy Cross, the Canons Regular of the Immaculate Conception and the Lateran Canons wear a black mozzetta.
The Pope wears three versions of the mozzetta: the summer mozzetta, which is of red satin; the winter mozzetta, which is of red velvet trimmed with white ermine fur; and the Paschal mozzetta, which is of white damask silk trimmed with white fur. The Paschal mozzetta is worn only during Eastertide.
The winter mozzetta and the Paschal mozzetta fell into disuse during the pontificate of John Paul II (1978–2005), but their use has been restored by Pope Benedict XVI. He wore the winter mozzetta during the papal station at the image of the Madonna near the Spanish Steps that traditionally marks the beginning of Rome's winter season, and he wears it on all the occasions in the winter season where this garment is appropriate. The white mozzetta was reintroduced during the Octave of Easter in 2008. This change between winter and summer garments is very practical, given the oppressive heat of the Roman summer [1].
A shoulder cape, elbow-length like the mozzetta but open in front, is sometimes worn with the cassock, either fixed to it or detachable. It is known as a pellegrina. It differs from the mozzetta also in not being associated with a cotta, surplice or rochet.
The general rule of the Roman Catholic Church is that cardinals and bishops may wear a pellegrina with their cassocks.[1] In 1850, the year in which he restored the Catholic hierarchy in England and Wales, Pope Pius IX was understood to grant to all priests there the privilege of wearing a replica in black of his own white cassock with pellegrina.[2] Since then, the wearing of a cassock with pellegrina has been a sign of a Catholic priest in England and Wales, Scotland, Ireland, Australia, and New Zealand.
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