Fr. Isaac Chima
The newly installed archbishop of Owerri and President of the Bishops Conference of Nigeria, Most Rev. Lucius I. Ugorji, together with other metropolitan archbishops from other parts of the world, who were appointed Archbishops from August last year, will receive their pallia from Pope Francis June 29, 2022.
In keeping with the tradition of the Church, Pope Francis will bless the Pallia on the solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul in St Peter’s Basilica, Rome, in a solemn Mass that starts by 9:30am. The Holy Mass will be concelebrated by the newly appointed Metropolitan Archbishops, who will receive their pallia from the Pope after the Mass.
The pallium, which can only be won by the Pope or a Metropolitan Archbishop, dates back to at least the fifth century. It is made of lamb’s wool.
It is worn over the chasuble and is the insignia of the office of a metropolitan archbishop, that is, of an archbishop who is the bishop of a metropolitan archdiocese. Wearing of the pallium symbolizes an archbishop’s authority in his province as well as his unity with the Holy See. It is also the symbol of the bishop as the good shepherd and, at the same time, of the Lamb Crucified for the salvation of the human race.
Benedict XVI explaining “the symbolism of the pallium” in a very concrete way in his homily when he inaugurated his Petrine ministry on 24 April 2005, said, “the lamb’s wool is meant to represent the lost, the sick or weak sheep which the shepherd places on his shoulders to carry to the waters of life.”
According to Canon Law (canon 437), a metropolitan must request the pallium within three months of his consecration or appointment (if he has already been consecrated) and may wear it only in the territory of his own diocese and in the other dioceses of his ecclesiastical province.
In 2015, Pope Francis made some changes to the public ceremony of investiture of the Pallia on Metropolitan Archbishops and emphasized that the investiture is an ecclesial event of the whole diocese, and not merely a juridical or ceremonial event. Pope Francis directed that the public ceremony of investiture of the Pallia (which have been blessed on 29th June) on Metropolitan Archbishops should take place in the prelates’ home dioceses and not in the Vatican as has been the case under recent pontiffs. What the new custom implies is that the ceremony of the reception of the pallium for Archbishop Lucius Ugorji will take two significant moments: the first is the blessing of the pallium by Pope Francis in the Mass of the feast of Saints Peter and Paul in the Vatican. The Mass will be concelebrated by Archbishop Ugorji and other newly appointed metropolitan archbishops; the second is when the pallium will be placed on the Archbishop Ugorji in Owerri Archdiocese by the Pope’s representative, the Apostolic Nuncio.
While speaking on Vatican Radio in 2015 on the reason for the changes to the ceremony of the reception of Pallium, Monsignor Guido Marini, Master of Pontifical Liturgical Celebrations, explained that while the reception of the pallium symbolizes communion between the See of Peter and the Successor of the Apostle and those who are chosen to carry out the episcopal ministry as Metropolitan Archbishops of Ecclesiastical Provinces, the new changes will favor the participation of the local Church in an important moment of its life and history.