From a reader:
I recently had the opportunity to dine at my [bishop]’s Residence and we were invited into his private chapel after dinner to offer a prayer. A friend of mine and I then wondered if he celebrated Mass every day he is present at that small chapel — his secretary and another priest in addition to a few nuns who manage the house live there, but not one else to my knowledge.
This led us to wondering whether it was permissible for a bishop to celebrate Mass without the miter, crozier, or other trappings of the episcopal state. Would you be able to offer us any insight into this? Of course, the bishop considers it an honor and privilege to offer Mass, but one wonders whether or not, in his busy schedule, he is able to offer it in his private chapel without the liturgical accoutrements of a bishop.
I think in the Novus Ordo, the Ordinary Form, pretty much anything goes.
In the Extraordinary Form, the Low Mass of the diocesan bishop was somewhat more elaborate than that of a priest. From what I can figure out, there was an ecclesiological point involved: when the bishop said Mass, the whole diocese was in a sense morally present. As a result, the bishop didn’t celebrate Mass in the same way as a priest.
As far as the newer form of Mass is concerned. I don’t know that there is anything to mention of interest other than the obligation to remove the zucchetto at the offertory. They greet and bless in their own manner, as well as have a slight adjustment to the Eucharistic prayer when praying for various people.
Perhaps some readers can chime in if they have any experience.
