pulling the wool

By Diogenes ( articles ) | Jun 30, 2005

33 Archbishops were invested with the pallium yesterday in Rome. Cardinal McCarrick contributes some spin.

The pallium, which is bestowed on each archbishop who took office in the past year, symbolizes the unity of each church province with the Holy See and of each archbishop with the pope. It's made of lamb's wool, is about 2 inches wide, has strips that hang down in front and back and is decorated with six black crosses. ...

Washington Cardinal Theodore McCarrick said he's proud of all four of the Americans invested Wednesday. "They include two former presidents of our U.S. bishops' conference, and that's saying something about (the pope's) confidence in the conference leadership in a beautiful way," McCarrick said, referring to Gregory and Fiorenza.

Both Fiorenza and Gregory were appointed to their archbishoprics in December of 2004, four months before Benedict became pope. Further, the pallium is bestowed on all metropolitan archbishops pro forma. So we can be sure that yesterday's festivities say absolutely nothing -- beautiful or otherwise -- about Pope Benedict's confidence in the leadership of the USCCB.

Except, perhaps, in its liberty to travel.