Archbishop Wester given pins for his pallium

Friday, Jul. 03, 2015

As a farewell gift, the Spanish-speaking priests of the Diocese of Salt Lake City presented three pallium pins to Archbishop John C. Wester as he departed Utah for his new assignment in the Archdiocese of Santa Fe.  

For the modern pallium, the pins are decorative, but historically they held the pallium. The pins are placed in a pallium under the chin, on the left shoulder, and at the nape. 

The pins given to Archbishop Wester were made by Fratelli Savi Gioielli in Rome. They are silver with lapis lazuli heads. On the reverse side, each is inscribed with the name of one of the sees in which Archbishop Wester has served in an episcopal capacity: San Francisco, Salt Lake City and Santa Fe. 

The ecclesiastical vestment known as the pallium is bestowed by the pope upon metropolitans and primates as a symbol of their jurisdiction. 

“The pallium is the symbol of a special relationship with the Pope and expresses besides the power, that, in communion with the Church of Rome, the metropolitan acquires by right in his own jurisdiction,” states the Vatican website. According to Canon Law (canon 437), a metropolitan ... may wear it only in the territory of his own diocese and in the other dioceses of his ecclesiastical province.”

The pallium is a narrow white woolen band shaped like a Y. It rests on the shoulders and has two lappets, one in front and the other behind, and is decorated with six black crosses. 

Archbishop Wester attended the June 29 Mass in Rome celebrating the feasts of Sts. Peter and Paul, concelebrating with Pope Francis and several other of the 46 archbishops who had been elevated to the office in the past year. This year, the pope did not confer the pallium on the new archbishops during the Mass, as had been done for the past 32 years. Instead, the pope blessed the palliums in the archbishops' presence, to enforce their bond of unity and communion with him; the inposition of the pallium was to take place at the archbishop's archdiocese.

Msgr. Guido Marini, papal master of liturgical ceremonies, said in January that the change was meant to better "highlight the relationship of the metropolitan archbishops with their local churches, giving more faithful the possibility of being present for this significant rite," according to a Catholic News Service report.