On the feast of Sts Peter and Paul yesterday, Pope Leo XIV personally placed the pallium on the shoulders of 35 metropolitan archbishops, urging them to follow the example of the patron saints of Rome in being “builders of unity” and “servants of the truth in charity”. Source: OSV News.
“Let us pray to Sts Peter and Paul that they may sustain us on our journey of communion in the footsteps of the Savior,” the Pope said in his homily in St Peter’s Basilica yesterday.
Pope Leo presented the woollen bands to newly appointed archbishops from across the globe, including Brisbane Archbishop Shane Mackinlay.
The pallium – a 7.6 cm-wide woollen band adorned with crosses, with 35.5cm strips hanging down the front and back – is a liturgical vestment symbolising unity with the Pope and service to the faithful. Metropolitan archbishops wear it when celebrating Mass within their ecclesiastical province.
“These bands of white wool adorned with crosses indeed express the commitment of every Shepherd – and also of every Christian – to take upon their shoulders the brothers and sisters entrusted to them, like so many lambs of the Lord’s flock,” the Pope said.
In presenting the palliums, Pope Leo XIV revived a tradition originally established by St John Paul II in 1983 of personally placing the vestment on each archbishop’s shoulders.
In 2015, Pope Francis returned the practice to local nuncios, who preside over the imposition of the pallium in each archbishop’s home archdiocese.
In his homily, Pope Leo drew on the symbols traditionally associated with the two apostles, keys for St Peter, and a sword and book for St Paul, to illustrate what he called the Church’s path to authentic unity.
“A key does not break down doors; rather, it opens and closes them by finding the proper levers within,” the Pope said.
“In the same way, communion within the Church is not built by clinging rigidly to one’s own position, but by seeking, in all hearts, points of encounter in the Truth,” he added.
Reflecting on St Paul, Pope Leo said the apostle “allowed himself to be transformed by the power of God’s word, which rescued him from the way of violence and led him onto the path of love.”
FULL STORY
Pope Leo XIV: Sts. Peter and Paul show us how to be ‘servants of the truth in charity’ (By Courtney Mares, OSV News)
