Mags GarganThe Church wants pastors who are brave and convincing witnesses with a life rooted in prayer, Pope Francis told archbishops in a ceremony in St Peter’s Basilica where 46 archbishops received a pallium, including two from Ireland.
The pallium is a white woollen strip worn around the archbishop’s neck to signify his authority as a metropolitan. Ireland’s newest archbishops, Archbishop Eamon Martin of Armagh and Archbishop Kieran O’Reilly of Cashel & Emly were invited to Rome to concelebrate Mass for the feast day of Ss Peter and Paul with Pope Francis and to receive their palliums on Monday.
This year, however, the Pope set aside a 32-year tradition and did not confer the palliums to the 46 archbishops in attendance. The newly appointed metropolitan archbishops will instead be formally vested with the pallium by an Apostolic Nuncio in their own archdiocese.
During his blessing of the palliums, Pope Francis said the woollen bands that will be worn over their shoulders symbolise the “yoke” of the Gospel as well as their call to be shepherds dedicated to the pastoral care of their people.
“It’s quite simple, because the most effective and authentic witness is one that does not contradict, by behaviour and lifestyle,” what one preaches and teaches, he said during the Mass.
The Pope asked that the archbishops be courageous, “convinced and convincing” witnesses, whose lifestyles matched the Gospel message and their preaching, and who “are not ashamed of the name of Christ and of his cross, not before the roaring lions, or before the powers of this world”.
Archbishop Charles Brown will conduct Archbishop Martin’s investiture at the 7pm Vigil Mass in St Patrick’s Cathedral, Armagh, on Saturday, July 4. Archbishop Kieran O’Reilly’s investiture will take place at a date in the early autumn.