Pope Leo XIV blesses 35 new archbishops with pallium in Rome

Pope Leo XIV personally placed the pallium on 35 new metropolitan archbishops in St. Peter’s Basilica as the Church marked the Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul, bringing an old Roman rite back to the center of papal leadership. The Vatican calendar listed the Mass for 9:30 a.m., and the ceremony bound liturgy to governance in a Church still asking its bishops to answer to local pressures while remaining visibly united with Rome.

The pallium, a white woolen vestment worn over Mass vestments, signals pastoral authority and communion with the pope. Metropolitan archbishops wear it when celebrating Mass in their ecclesiastical province, making the cloth more than ceremonial dress: it marks the responsibility of a chief shepherd to govern, teach, and hold together a regional church.

Leo used the homily to set that expectation plainly. He urged the new archbishops to be “builders of unity” and “servants of the truth in charity,” and he called them “Good Shepherds” who would imitate Saints Peter and Paul. He also pointed to Peter’s mistakes and repentance as part of the apostolic witness, linking leadership not to polish but to humility, correction, and fidelity under pressure.

The papal imposition of the pallium has moved back and forth over the last four decades. St. John Paul II began the practice in 1983, Pope Francis changed it in 2015 so local nuncios would impose the pallium in the archbishop’s home archdiocese, and Leo revived the papal ceremony in 2026. The shift restored a more visible sign of the pope’s direct bond with metropolitan archbishops at a moment when the symbolism of office is being measured against the harder tests of administration and trust.

Four American archbishops were among the 35 who received the pallium. Archbishop Ronald A. Hicks, who leads the Archdiocese of New York and succeeded Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan, was installed at St. Patrick’s Cathedral on Feb. 6, 2026. He leads 2.5 million Catholics, and more than 150 American pilgrims traveled with him to Rome, including 95 from New York and 62 from Illinois.

Archbishop Richard Moth of Westminster called the pallium “a very powerful sign.” In Rome, that sign carried a clear expectation: a metropolitan archbishop is not only an administrator of territory, but a shepherd expected to hold together unity, accountability, and mission across a divided and changing Church.