Jan. 30--In another sign of the pope's break with Catholic tradition, Chicago Archbishop Blase Cupich will not go to Rome to receive the pallium, or ecclesiastical vestment bestowed upon new archbishops. Instead, he will receive it in Chicago this year.
This month, Monsignor Guido Marini, the Vatican's master of liturgical ceremonies, wrote to the church's envoys in countries where there are new archbishops, telling each he should be formally vested in his own archdiocese.
According to a Vatican spokesman, Marini told the envoys, known as apostolic nuncios, that Pope Francis thinks this new initiative "will favor the participation of the local Church in an important moment of its life and history."
The ceremony replaces the tradition of the pontiff publicly presenting the pallium on June 29, the Feast of St. Peter and St. Paul in Rome. Instead, the pope has invited the new archbishops to that Mass in Rome, where he will bless the vestment.
Apostolic nuncios will bestow the garment in each archbishop's home diocese at a later date.
No date has been chosen for the Chicago ceremony, though it's expected to take place in Holy Name Cathedral. Bishops in Joliet, Rockford, Springfield, Belleville and Peoria also are expected to attend.
The vestment protocol change is just the latest in a series of breaks with church tradition for Francis, who lives outside the papal palace, wears simpler vestments, has confessed his sins to a priest in public and has chosen cardinals in unexpected dioceses.
mbrachear@tribpub.com
