Courtney McGrailPope Francis will present each of Ireland’s two newest archbishops with a pallium, which signifies the power of a metropolitan archbishop, in a ceremony in the Vatican next week.
The Holy Father will bless and present the pallium, a white woolen strip worn around the archbishop’s neck, to Archbishop Eamon Martin of Armagh and Archbishop Kieran O’Reilly of Cashel & Emly, in a private ceremony after concelebrated Mass in St Peter’s Basilica next Monday.
Breaking with tradition this year, the Pope has decided that in order to emphasise the participation of the local Church, the newly appointed metropolitan archbishops will then be formally vested with the pallium by the Apostolic Nuncio in their own archdiocese.
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.