This photopost will highlight the mozzetta. The mozzetta is an elbow-length shoulder cape, closed in front with buttons, and of a color that varies according to the rank of its wearer. It belongs by right to bishops and cardinals, and is granted as a privilege to certain minor prelates. It always used to have a little, vestigial hood on the back, but since 1969 that has officially disappeared from the mozzette of bishops and cardinals (although one still sees it on certain canons, and most recently on the Pope). It is worn over a tight-sleeved, surplice-like grament called the rochet.
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This photograph of Cardinal Schoenborn of Vienna nicely illustrates full choir dress. His Eminence is wearing the choir cassock (scarlet, because he is a cardinal). Over that is a white, lace rochet. The mozzetta (scarlet, again, because of his rank) covers his shoulders. Over the mozzetta is worn the pectoral cross on the cord (of gold and scarlet, because of his rank). On his head is the scarlet zuchetto (skullcap) covered by the scarlet biretta (of watered silk and without a pom-pom, because he is a cardinal).
Having seen the scarlet mozzetta of the Cardinals, we now turn to the purple mozzetta of bishops and archbishops.
Monsignor Robert Vasa, the Bishop of Baker, Oregon, will be our model of a bishop in full choir dress. The vesture is very similar to a cardinal's. The bishop is wearing a purple choir cassock, trimmed in amaranth red. You see the white lace of the rochet, and over that the purple mozzetta, trimmed in amaranth. On the bishop's head is the purple zuchetto, and he is holding the purple biretta (unlike a cardinal's, it has a pom-pom and is not of watered silk) in his hand. Around his neck is the pectoral cross, hanging from the cord. Notice that the cord is green and gold. Even though purple now predominates in a bishop's vesture, green is actually the older proper color of bishops.
As a special case, we'll next look at the papal mozzetta. The Pope makes use of a red mozzetta, harkening back to the times when scarlet (not white) was the chief papal color. According to custom (one not seen since the 1960s), the Pope uses a white mozzetta during Easter Week. It had also been customary for the Pope to use a mozzetta trimmed in ermine during the winter months; although this fell out of use for a few decades, Benedict XVI has recently made use of it again. The Popes may, or may not, choose to wear the pectoral cross over the mozzetta and may, or may not, opt to wear a red stole, as well.
In this photograph, we see Pope Benedict in choir dress. He is wearing a white cassock, with a lace rochet over it. Over his shoulders is a red satin mozzetta, worn with a pectoral cross on the golden cord. His head is covered with a white zuchetto.
This is a very instructive old photo. Pope Pius XII is seen here wearing a watered-silk cassock (since the changes of the 1960s, the Pope is the only one entitled to a watered-silk choir cassock). Until he himself changed the rule, prelatial choir cassocks had a train, which could either be let down or folded up. If you look at the back of his cassock, you can see how the train has been fastened up. Note, too, his tufted fascia (sash): until Paul VI unfortunately changed the rules, a tufted sash was worn with choir dress, and the fringed sash was worn with normal dress. Now, all sashes are supposed to be fringed. Over the cassock is the rochet, and on the Pope's shoulders is the ermine-trimmed winter mozzetta, without cross or stole.
Other ecclesiastical dignitaries also are granted the privilege of wearing the mozzetta. The following photos will illustrate the variety of forms it can take.
