MEDIA RELEASE
ATTENTION: Attention Assignment Editors

TORONTO (June 27, 2007) This Friday, June 29, Pope Benedict XVI will present His Grace, Thomas Collins, Archbishop of Toronto, with the pallium, a symbol of his leadership as shepherd of Canada’s largest Roman Catholic diocese. The ceremony takes place during Mass on the feast of Sts. Peter & Paul in St. Peter’s Square. The pallia will be presented to 46 archbishops, including a record five Canadians, who received appointments throughout the world over the last year.

The pallium is a circular white woolen garment worn around the neck and shoulders with two long pieces draping one over the chest and the other along the back. It is decorated with six black crosses and weighed with pieces of lead. The wool for the pallium comes from two lambs offered every year to the Pope on January 21, the Feast of St. Agnes. Symbolically, in presenting the pallia, the pope shares the mission to “feed my sheep and lambs” with the newest archbishops of the world, as they reflect on the significant responsibility of global church leadership.

The pallium predates the Christian era by at least 200 years. Originally a simple garment worn for warmth in Greece, early Christians adopted it as a sign of their fidelity to Christ and over time the Christian symbol of fish was used to adorn the garment and in later centuries the cross. Once worn by all Christian followers, by the ninth century, the pallium evolved to a garment given exclusively by the pope to metropolitan archbishops.

As one of the most diverse dioceses in the world, the Archdiocese of Toronto is home to 1.7 million Catholics who celebrate Mass each week in over 30 different languages at more than 220 churches.

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Background Resources:
For more information on the history of the pallium, please click here.

For more information contact:
Neil MacCarthy, Director, Public Relations & Communications, Archdiocese of Toronto
(416) 934-3400 x 552 (416) 879-2846 (cell) neilm@archtoronto.org www.archtoronto.org