VATICAN CITY, JUNE 27, 2012 (Zenit.org).- The Vatican press office announced today some changes to the rite for imposing the pallium on metropolitan archbishops. The note was released in preparation for the annual celebration, which will be held this Friday on the solemnity of Sts. Peter and Paul.
“Things will remain substantially the same but this year, following a logic of development in continuity, it has been decided simply to move the rite itself, and it will now take place before the Eucharistic celebration,” the statement read.
The changes to the rite were approved by the Holy Father.
The statement indicated that the changes were made to shorten the rite. The names of the archbishops will be read out before the opening procession and the rite of the palliums will take place once the Holy Father reaches the altar.
The Vatican also stated that the new form of the rite would ensure that the Eucharist would be at the center of the celebration: “To ensure that the Eucharistic celebration is not ‘interrupted’ by a relatively long rite (the number of metropolitan archbishops now stands at around forty-five each year), which could make attentive and focused participation in the Mass more difficult,” the statement read.
The changes, the note concluded, would also avoid the confusion that the rite of imposing the pallium may be thought of as a Sacramental rite. “Indeed, the rites which take place during a Eucharistic celebration following the homily are normally Sacramental rites: Baptism, Confirmation, Ordination, Matrimony, Anointing of the Sick. The imposition of the pallium, on the other hand, is not Sacramental in nature,” the note read.
