Attire
In pastoral settings, deacons in the Archdiocese of Kansas City in Kansas wear a gray clerical shirt with a Roman collar when serving in a parish or archdiocesan ministry. Unless circumstances suggest otherwise, pastoral settings in which the deacon should wear clerical garb include, but are not limited to, official parish functions, archdiocesan functions or liturgies (e.g., the Chrism Mass), weekend Masses, catechetical ministry, leading parish devotions, and works of mercy.
Vesture
When he is present at the Eucharistic celebration, a deacon should ordinarily exercise his ministry, wearing sacred vestments. The deacon wears an alb (with amice, if necessary to cover collar, and cincture, if required). Over this place the stole and, if available, the dalmatic (the color of the day or celebration and preferably relating in color and design to the vestments of the presiding priest). See General Instruction of the Roman Missal, no. 338.
- When deacons do not exercise a ministerial role in a liturgical celebration, they should neither vest nor occupy a specific place in the liturgy, unless they are participating as the order of deacons, e.g., Chrism Mass, ordination, or funeral of a permanent deacon.
- From Redemptionis Sacramentum, a liturgical document from the Holy See: “The proper vestment of the deacon is the dalmatic, to be worn over an alb and stole. In order that the beautiful tradition of the Church may be preserved, it is praiseworthy to refrain from exercising the option of omitting the dalmatic” (no. 125).