Home / News & Publications / Michigan Catholic News / 2009 / Receiving the pallium is 'one of the great graces of my priesthood'
Receiving the pallium is 'one of the great graces of my priesthood'
by Archbishop Allen Vigneron special to The Michigan Catholic
Published June 26, 2009
Dear Friends:
Monday, June 29, is the Solemnity of SS. Peter and Paul, venerated by the Church in Rome as her founders and patrons, and designated by the liturgy as the "princes" of the apostles. Not long after Pope John Paul II became the bishop of Rome, he began the practice of conferring the pallium on bishops at the Mass for Saints Peter and Paul as a way to underscore the meaning of the pallium.
This year I will be in Rome to celebrate this feast. I will be concelebrating the Holy Eucharist with Pope Benedict XVI, and at the Mass the Holy Father will bestow the pallium on me, along with the other metropolitan archbishops named this past year. For me, this event is one of the great graces of my priesthood. Since you are the members of my family of faith, I would like you to be part of this occasion, even if you cannot make the pilgrimage to Rome with me. To that end, I want to tell you a bit about what the pallium is and what it signifies, and then to suggest how we can be united in sharing in this event.
While the pallium is rich with symbolism, it is very simple in appearance. It is a narrow band or collar of white wool with six black crosses embroidered on it. The pope wears a particular version of this vestment around his neck at public Masses, and he gives them also to metropolitan archbishops. (A metropolitan archbishop is one who leads an ecclesiastical province, a regional grouping of dioceses. The archbishop of Detroit leads the six other diocesan bishops of Michigan.) The pallia - plural for this Latin word - are woven from wool of lambs blessed by the Holy Father on Jan. 21, the feast of St. Agnes. Until they are bestowed, the pallia are kept in a special coffer that rests directly above the tomb of St. Peter and under the main altar of the Vatican Basilica.
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Catholic Press Photo | CNS
A close-up view of a pallium, like the one to be bestowed on Archbishop Allen Vigneron on June 29. |
The pallium is a symbol of the archbishop's pastoral office and signifies that the man who receives it exercises his ministry in communion with the Holy Father and with all the other archbishops of the Church. On the day when Pope Benedict solemnly inaugurated his ministry as bishop of Rome, he spent a large part of his preaching reflecting on what the pallium means. It tells us about the bishop as a shepherd. Pope Benedict pointed out that as a collar of wool around the bishop's neck, the pallium recalls that, like the Good Shepherd, the bishop is called to carry the sheep on his own shoulders, in order to bear the members of his flock and keep them out of harm's way. In being made of lamb's wool, the pallium reminds us that Christ the Good Shepherd is also the paschal lamb. He carries us along, not by the force of His might, but by the strength of His love, His love "to the end," His crucified love. In wearing the pallium, the bishop is marked as a leader whose first duty to his people is to love them, even if, like Jesus, that will be a love "to the end."
Stay in touch
Archbishop Allen Vigneron has a blog, A Shepherd's Mission, on his trip to Rome to receive his pallium. Visit it at http://aodonline.wordpress.com/ |
Telling you about the meaning of this ceremony leads quite logically to offering my suggestion about how we can be joined together in heart and mind on June 29. I will receive the pallium with a firm resolution to have my life with you, and my service of you, mean what this vestment means: a shepherd loving in the person of Christ the Good Shepherd. And along with this resolution will go my prayer that God will give me the help I need to keep my resolution. That prayer leads naturally into another, that the Lord will help all of you and your families to grow in that same life and holiness which the apostles and their successors have handed on to us from Jesus. So, we will be together in the Mass in St. Peter's because as I kneel on the platform over St. Peter's tomb, you will be in my prayerful heart. I ask, in turn, for your prayers for me, especially at Mass in your parish church on the 29th if you are able to attend. Hold me in your prayerful hearts that I may be the shepherd I aspire to be and that you need me to be.
I have observed the Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul in lots of circumstances over the years. I have never had, and never will have again, a celebration like the one ahead of me this year. May the Holy Spirit work powerfully in us on this day that we may be the shepherd and flock that the Lord calls us to be.
Yours as ever,
†Archbishop Allen Vigneron
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