ARCHBISHOP PRENDERGAST WILL RECEIVE HIS THIRD PALLIUM ON JULY 31

It is an honour for an archbishop to receive a pallium from the Pope. This month, Archbishop Terrence Prendergast, S.J., will add a third one to his collection!

The imposition of a pallium—the Latin word for cloak or mantle—on a metropolitan archbishop is an ancient Catholic practice that, this year, takes a few novel turns. Tradition has it that the pallium dates to the fourth century when Pope Marcus conferred the woollen bands upon the bishop of Ostia as a symbol of his special role in consecrating a new pope. The pallium is conferred on the feast of Saints Peter and Paul. An archbishop wears it over his shoulders, reminding him and others that he is called to gently carry his sheep. To emphasize that relationship with the flock, Pope Francis decided in 2015 that while the new archbishops would join him at the Mass for the blessing of the pallia, the woollen bands would be placed on their shoulders in their home archdioceses.

This year, the pandemic prevented most qualifying archbishops, including Archbishop Prendergast, from attending the recent blessing of the pallia in Rome. He did, however, attend two others: in 1999 when, as Archbishop of Halifax, he received the pallium from Pope John Paul II, and in 2007, when, as Archbishop of Ottawa, he received it from now-retired Pope Benedict XVI.

The Archishop stated that, "I will have received three pallia for three archdioceses from three popes, that 's really quite something."

Archbishop Prendergast is unlikely to add more pallia to his collection. This year marks his 25th episcopal anniversary and, at 76-years-of-age, it is expected that the Holy See will accept the request for retirement that he submitted last year. Coadjutor Archbishop Marcel Damphousse is designated to succeed him.

Pope Francis’ representative, the Most Rev. Luigi Bonazzi, Apostolic Nuncio to Canada, will place the pallium on Archbishop Prendergast’s shoulders in a bilingual ceremony at Notre-Dame Cathedral, 385 Sussex Drive, Ottawa, at 12:15 PM on Friday, July 31, 2020, the Feast of Saint Ignatius of Loyola. Saint Ignatius was a founder of the order to which Archbishop Prendergast belongs, the Society of Jesus.

To read more about the history of the pallium click here.