(ANS – Vatican City) – On 29 June the Solemnity of SS Peter and Paul, the Holy Father Benedict XVI invested 43 Metropolitan Archbishops with the Pallium. Among these were the Salesians Archbishop Timothy Costelloe of Perth, Australia, and Archbishop Francis Panfilo of Rabaul, Papua New Guinea.

The Pallium is a liturgical vestment conferred by the Pope exclusively on Metropolitan Archbishops as a visible sign of the authority of the prelates of the major dioceses in the world and of their union with the Bishop of Rome. It is a strip of white woollen cloth placed round the neck representing the lamb carried on his shoulders by the Good Shepherd.

“My Dear Metropolitan Archbishops, the  Pallium I have conferred on you will always remind you that you have been instituted in and for the great mystery of communion that is the Church” the Pope said during the Mass in the Vatican Basilica.
 
Published 02/07/2012