Archbishop Cupich dons historic vestment in Chicago ceremony

CHICAGO – After a circle of white wool was placed around his shoulders to symbolize his role as shepherd of the local church, Chicago Archbishop Blase Cupich called the garment a constant reminder that he and his flock should reach out to those who are broken and suffering. Called a pallium, the garment has a rich history in the Catholic Church, and the ceremony took a different turn for Cupich and his congregation because of a decision by Pope Francis earlier this year to bestow the vestment in the archbishop’s home church, not in Rome.

“It is placed on the shoulders reminding the one who wears it and the entire church he serves that we are a community that goes after the lost sheep,” Cupich told a full house at Holy Name Cathedral at the Sunday service. “Not only those who have strayed, but those who are ignored, forgotten or overlooked. The task is not just to find them and bring them home, but to lift them up high, to shoulder level, where they can begin to see and live a new life, the life of faith.”

“For, like St. Peter, we know the value of lifting up to shoulder level the lost, for we have been lost ourselves,” Cupich told those who packed the pews to see a rare ritual up close for the first time in more than 30 years.

Previous bishops, including Chicago’s Cardinal Joseph Bernardin and Cardinal Francis George, first wore the vestment in Rome during the traditional June 29 ceremony at the request of Pope John Paul II.

Cupich did receive the pallium from the pope in Rome on June 29, where it was blessed by the pontiff during the Mass on the feast of Saints Peter and Paul. Cupich also met privately with the pope during the same trip. But the wool garment came in a leather box with a sealed letter to the pope’s U.S. ambassador known as the apostolic nuncio. Cupich did wear the garment until this recent Sunday.

Brother Jamison Wheeler, abbot of the Order of St. Andrew, a Catholic community in downstate Manteno, Ill., said he had to wake up early 17 years ago to watch George receive his pallium in Rome on television. The fact that the ceremony is now in Chicago, he said, helps to make church rituals more personal to parishioners.

“It’s wonderful,” said Wheeler, 42, while waiting in line to enter the cathedral on that Sunday afternoon. “I finally get to see it for the first time in my lifetime.”

Mary Lou Arnold, 72, a member of Holy Name, believed that having the ceremony in Chicago will allow young people to connect better with the church.

“In the ’60s, I’d watch it on TV all the time, but these young people haven’t seen it,” said Arnold who also waited in line to get a prime seat.

In January, the Vatican’s master of liturgical ceremonies informed the church’s envoys in countries with new archbishops that each new appointee should be formally vested in his own archdiocese. At the time, envoys were told that Francis believed the new initiative would “favor the participation of the local church in an important moment of its life and history.”

During Sunday’s 90-minute ceremony, Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano, the apostolic nuncio, explained that the pallium, made from the wool of a lamb blessed by the pope on the feast of St. Agnes in January, symbolized the pontiff’s connection to the church in Chicago.

“In this way, he is expressing his closeness to all of you,” Vigano said.

The ceremony also aimed to emphasize the unity among the six dioceses in Illinois. Representatives from the dioceses of Joliet, Rockford, Belleville, Springfield and Peoria were part of the procession.

“It’s a great symbol,” said Springfield Bishop Thomas Paprocki, a former auxiliary bishop in Chicago. “It’s a symbol of being a shepherd, a shepherd of a flock, and it brings a sign of unity.”

The pallium is decorated with six black crosses. Three of the crosses are decorated with a gold pin, symbolizing the three nails of Christ’s Crucifixion. Two long flaps drape over the chest and along the back, and the end of each piece is black, symbolizing the hooves of a lamb.

After Vigano placed the scarf around Cupich’s neck, parishioners stood in applause.

Eileen Gutierrez, 53, who represented the Diocese of Joliet during the ceremony, said Cupich’s homily made the symbolism of the pallium come to life. Cupich, she said, carries his sheep over his shoulders in the same way that Jesus did. Having the ceremony at home reminds parishioners to assist him with the heavy burden.

“It’s such a beautiful piece of symbolism,” Gutierrez said. “But (Cupich) can’t do it alone. He needs the help of many.”