Archbishop Rosales to receive pallium in Rome

Manila Archbishop Gaudencio B. Rosales leaves today (June 26) for the Vatican to receive the pallium from the Holy Father Pope John Paul II in ceremonies on June 29, the Solemnity of St. Peter & Paul.

The pallium which means cloak or coverlet is a band of wool put over the neck as a sign of the archbishop's authority and deanship of the bishops in an ecclesiastical province. An archbishop receives a pallium for each archdiocese that he is assigned to head.

The wool of the pallium comes from lambs who are blessed by the Pope during special ceremonies on the feast of St. Cecilia. After the wool have been shorn these are made into the pallium which are in turn kept in a receptacle placed over the crypt of St. Peter in Rome. This Petrine tradition emanates from the time of St. Peter, the first Pope of the Roman Catholic Church.