Pallium Primer 2013: Francis' First Class

It's time to revisit what's become a tradition of this blog, a profile of the U.S. bishops headed to Rome this June 29 for the annual Pallium Mass. As many of you know, the pallium is a wool band worn over the vestments of an archbishop at Mass. Every year on the feast of Sts. Peter and Paul, the pope presents a pallium to each of the bishops. We delved into the significance and symbolism of the pallium in our first blog post on this subject, two years ago.

As was the case then and last year, it's worth noting that, even when a bishop is already an archbishop, he receives the pallium again when he moved to a new metropolitan see (i.e. archdiocese). In the United States, this has occurred in the last five years with Cardinal Timothy Dolan (Milwaukee to New York), Archbishop José Gomez (San Antonio to Los Angeles) and Archbishop Charles Chaput, OFM Cap. (Denver to Philadelphia).

As has also been the case the past two years, this year's class has four members, alphabetically:

Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone

Archbishop of San Francisco

Age 57
Ordained a priest July 9, 1982
Ordained a bishop August 21, 2002
Auxiliary bishop of San Diego, 2002-2009
Bishop of Oakland, 2009-2012

Archbishop Cordileone is currently chairman of the USCCB Subcommittee on the Promotion and Defense of Marriage. San Francisco has currently four living archbishops, a distinction held by the Archdiocese of New Orleans from 2009-2011. Archbishop Cordileone's three living predecessors are Archbishop John R. Quinn (archbishop of San Francisco from 1977-1995), Cardinal William Levada (1995-2005, and prefect of the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith, 2005-2012) and Archbishop George Niederauer (2005-2012).

Archbishop Michael Jackels
Archbishop of Dubuque, Iowa

Age 59
Ordained a priest May 30, 1981
Ordained a bishop April 4, 2005
Bishop of Wichita, Kansas 2005-2013

Archbishop Jackels succeeded Archbishop Jerome Hanus, OSB, who retired early for reasons of health, on April 8.

Archbishop Alexander Sample
Archbishop of Portland, Oregon

Age 52
Ordained a priest June 1, 1990
Ordained a bishop January 25, 2006
Bishop of Marquette, Michigan 2006-2013

Archbishop Sample was the youngest bishop in the country at the time of his 2006 appointment to Marquette. He was also an early adopter of Twitter among the U.S. bishops.

Archbishop Joseph Tobin, CSSR
Archbishop of Indianapolis

Age 61
Ordained a priest June 1, 1978
Ordained a bishop October 9, 2010
Secretary of the Congregation for the Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, 2010-2012

Archbishop Tobin joined the Redemptorist order in 1973 and served as its superior general from 1997-2009. He then served as the second-in-command in the Vatican's congregation overseeing religious life until his 2012 appointment to Indianapolis.

(Photo of Archbishop Tobin a CNS photo by Sean Gallagher of The Criterion, Indianapolis)

The Sheared Lambs Did Their Part

New archbishops around the world will receive their pallia from the pope on June 29, the Feast of Sts. Peter and Paul. Among those going to Rome for the occasion are Archbishop Timothy Dolan of New York, Archbishop Robert Carlson of St. Louis, Archbishop Allen Vigneron of Detroit, Archbishop-designate Gregory Aymond of New Orleans and Archbishop-designate George Lucas of Omaha.

Much symbolism surrounds the pallia, which are white woolen bands, about two inches wide, that are worn around the neck. Pope Benedict XVI will present a pallium to Latin-rite archbishops recently named to head metropolitan sees.

Pallia are liturgical vestments worn over the chasuble at Mass, decorated with six dark crosses, with a strip hanging in front and in back and a pendant at the end of each strip. From front or back, the pallium resembles a “Y.” The pallium represent the archbishop’s authority over his ecclesiastical province and his unity with the pope, who also wears a pallium. The wool of an archbishop’s pallium recalls Jesus’s words to Peter: Feed my lambs (Jn 21:15). An archbishop is buried with his pallium.

There are differences between the archbishops’ pallia and the pope’s pallium. The archbishops’ pallia are woven from wool from lambs. The pope’s pallium is woven of wool from both lambs and sheep, to reflect Jesus’s telling Peter: “Feed my lambs” and “Feed my sheep.”

The wool for the pallia is no ordinary wool. It comes from very young lambs who are incensed and blessed after a solemn Mass on the Feast of St. Agnes (January 28) at Rome’s Basilica of St. Agnes Outside the Walls. Afterwards the lambs are shown to the pope at the Vatican and then cared for by the Benedictine nuns of Santa Cecilia in Trastevere. The nuns care for them until Holy Thursday when the lambs are sheared.

On June 28, the vigil of the Feast of Sts. Peter and Paul, the pallia are placed on an altar in St. Peter’s Basilica near the tomb of St. Peter, where they remain throughout the night.