Pontifical vestments, also referred to as episcopal vestments or pontificals, are the liturgical vestments worn by bishops (and by concession some other prelates) in the Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Eastern Catholic, Anglican, and some Lutheran churches, in addition to the usual priestly vestments for the celebration of the Mass and the other sacraments. The pontifical vestments are only worn when celebrating or presiding over liturgical functions. As such, the garments should not be confused with choir dress, which are worn when attending liturgical functions but not celebrating or presiding.
The pontifical accoutrements include the:
A metropolitan archbishop also wears a pallium within his own ecclesiastical province, once he has received it from the Pope. After receiving it, he is entitled to have an archiepiscopal cross (with two cross-bars instead of one) carried before him.
Today bishops rarely use the following accoutrements, unless celebrating Solemn Pontifical Mass in its pre-1970 form:
These items are no longer even mentioned in the Caeremoniale Episcoporum, which has also omitted the description that earlier editions gave of the accoutrements of the bishop's horse.
When celebrating Mass, the bishop wears alb, stole and chasuble, in the manner done by priests. The Caeremoniale Episcoporum recommends, but does not impose, that in solemn celebrations he should also wear a dalmatic, which can always be white, beneath the chasuble, especially when administering the sacrament of holy orders, blessing an abbot or abbess, and dedicating a church or an altar. A tunicle was also worn until the apostolic letter Ministeria quaedam of 15 August 1972 decreed that, with effect from 1 January 1973, the functions that in the Latin Church had been assigned to the subdeacon should thenceforth be carried out by the instituted ministers (not members of the clergy) known as lectors and acolytes.