The Catholic Review Online: The Yoke That Binds

His Excellency Archbishop Edwin O'Brien is surely off to Rome very soon as he anticipates the conferral of the pallium on Sunday, the 29th of June, the Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul. In his column this week, Thoughts on Our Church, he describes the experience to come.

The metropolitan archbishop is entitled to wear the pallium only within the territory of his province. The Pope alone wears it everywhere as a sign of his universal jurisdiction. Incidentally, the pallium worn by Pope Benedict XVI is now different from the pallium he confers on Sunday. His pallium is similar to the ancient, longer and broader style seen in mosaics of the early Church.

Gratefully, I am accompanied by more than 100 friends from Baltimore and from among the faithful representing my prior places of ministry. I pray it will be a holy pilgrimage for all who take part.

What a graphic reminder of the unity that we all enjoy with the bishop of Rome, successor of St. Peter and head of the College of Bishops. Intense will my prayer be that day for all in our Archdiocese and in our suffragan dioceses.

The story on the pallium is a beautiful one and I urge you to read it all. I can assure His Excellency that he will be in my own prayers this Sunday as well. I also congratulate him as he assumes the mantle of the "Premier See" of the Archdiocese of Baltimore during her 200th Anniversary year as her Fifteenth Ordinary. Ad multos annos!