Holy Father Pope Francis celebrated Holy Mass in Rome’s St. Peters Square on the solemn feast of Sts. Peter and Paul, during which he blessed the pallium which will be sent to 30 new metropolitan archbishops he appointed throughout the world during the past year. The pallium is a band of white wool which metropolitan archbishops wear around their shoulders as a symbol of their authority and their unity with the Pope. A metropolitan archdiocese is one under which suffragan dioceses are grouped together to make up a geographical territory of the Church. His Holiness Pope Francis urged Christians not to be a stumbling block in the path of Christ, the Anointed One, whose glory cannot be separated from his cross.
As reported by Vatican news, Holy Father Pope Francis remarked that “By not separating his glory from the cross, Jesus wants to liberate his disciples, his Church, from empty forms of triumphalism: forms empty of love, service, compassion, empty of people. Peter had seen how Jesus anointed His people with hope, walking from village to village with the sole aim of saving and helping those considered lost – the dead, the sick, the wounded and the repentant. God’s Anointed One kept bringing the Father’s love and mercy to the very end. This merciful love demands that we too go forth to every corner of life, to reach out to everyone, even though this may cost us our good name, our comforts, our status even martyrdom.” Further, His Holiness added, “When Peter couldn’t accept that Jesus should die, he becomes the Lord’s enemy and a stumbling stone in the Messiah’s path. Peter’s life and confession of faith also means learning to recognize the temptations that will accompany the life of every disciple. Sharing in Christ’s anointing, also means sharing in his glory, which is his cross. In Jesus, glory and the cross go together; they are inseparable.”
His Holiness Pope Francis concluded his remarks by reminding that “To proclaim our faith with our lips and our heart demands that we – like Peter – learn to recognize the whisperings of the evil one, those personal and communitarian pretexts that keep us far from real human dramas, that preserve us from contact with other people’s concrete existence and, in the end, from knowing the revolutionary power of God’s tender love.”
