Bishop set to be honored by pope

The pallium is just a circular band of white wool with two tail-like pendants and six black crosses -- one of the least colorful forms of vestment for a Catholic prelate.

But the pallium is also one of the oldest and most symbolically significant forms of Catholic vestment, so important that its recipients are generally buried wearing it.

On Tuesday, at an elaborate ceremony at the Vatican, Pope John Paul II will impose the pallium on Archbishop Sean P. O'Malley of Boston, in a symbolic affirmation of the pontiff's conferral of authority on the new archbishop of Boston.

The symbolic recognition of O'Malley's authority comes as the Capuchin Franciscan friar asserts his control over the archdiocese and his stature as the metropolitan, or leading bishop, for the province of Boston, which includes the seven dioceses of Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Vermont. Though O'Malley has not yet marked a year in Boston, he has set in motion the dramatic transformation of the Archdiocese of Boston, the region's largest, but also most troubled, religious institution.

"Archbishop Sean is honored to receive the pallium from the Holy Father, but he understands that the pallium is not so much a badge of honor and authority as it is a call to service to the church of Boston," said O'Malley's spokesman, the Rev. Christopher J. Coyne.

The pallium actually predates Christianity and was once a nonreligious woolen garment worn for warmth. But it was adapted as a religious garment by early Christians, and since the fourth century has been associated with popes and their designees.

Over the centuries, elaborate rituals have become associated with the pallium. The wool comes from two lambs that are raised by Trappist monks and presented annually, on the feast of St. Agnes, to the pope. A group of Benedictine nuns shears the lambs and then weaves the wool into the palliums for the new archbishops; the nuns then feast on the lambs at their Easter dinner.

The night before the palliums are given to the archbishops, they are blessed by the pope and stored in a silver casket at the crypt of St. Peter.

Many new archbishops, particularly those from affluent countries such as the United States, travel to Rome with large delegations and hold festive parties to mark their receipt of the pallium; Archbishop Raymond L. Burke of St. Louis, for example, this year is leading a group on a seven-day trip priced at up to $2,600 per person.

O'Malley, by contrast, is choosing a lower-key approach, reflecting his personal style and the challenges facing his archdiocese. During his eventful first 11 months, O'Malley has settled 541 sexual abuse claims for $85 million, has agreed to sell the historic cardinal's residence and surrounding land to Boston College for $107 million, and is closing a total of 65 parishes.

Coyne said about 75 relatives and friends of O'Malley will travel to Rome for the Pallium Mass, but they are traveling on their own, not as part of any organized trip. Coyne said O'Malley has barred any festivities, although he will celebrate a Mass for the group on Friday.

"There will be no receptions and no parties," Coyne said. "With all that's going on in the archdiocese, and given the financial constraints so many parishes and agencies are under, the archbishop thought it would be inappropriate to be spending money on something like that."

The ceremony will take place Tuesday, the feast day of Saints Peter and Paul, in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican. Patriarch Bartholomew I, ecumenical patriarch of Constantinople, will attend the ceremony, marking the 40th anniversary of the embrace of Pope Paul VI and Patriarch Atenagoras I in Jerusalem in January 1964, signifying the warming of long-bitter relations between the Catholic Church and Orthodox Christianity.

At the evening Mass, 44 archbishops will receive the pallium, which is bestowed annually by the pope each June 29. The group of new archbishops includes three Americans in addition to O'Malley: Burke of St. Louis, Archbishop Henry J. Mansell of Hartford, and Cardinal Justin F. Rigali of Philadelphia.

"In the Middle Ages when archbishops were elected by their own province, the pope used to send the pallium to the new archbishop as a visible sign of papal recognition of the appointment," said Paul F. Bradshaw, a professor of liturgy at the University of Notre Dame. "The custom continues down to the present day even though now of course the pope is actively involved in the appointment. But it does continue to serve as a visible sign to the faithful that the archbishop is in communion with the pope."

The ritual imposition of the pallium on new archbishops has become more elaborate under John Paul II, who summons all new archbishops to his side each June 29 for the ceremony.

"He knows the value of these large, symbolic gestures," said the Rev. Thomas J. Reese, editor of America magazine, the Jesuit weekly. "It's a very spectacular ceremony showing the catholicity of the church, its universality in terms of cultures and races and churches, and it symbolizes very strongly the unity of these archbishops with the pope."

Reese said he expects the next honor for O'Malley will be to be named a cardinal. He said the fact that O'Malley's predecessor, Cardinal Bernard F. Law, remains a member of the college of cardinals is not a major obstacle to O'Malley's elevation; of greater concern to the Vatican, Reese said, is keeping the number of American cardinals under age 80 at about 11, to maintain a rough geographic balance in the body that elects the next pope. But Reese said O'Malley has done well thus far, and predicted that he will be named a cardinal over the next few years.

"He's done a magnificent job in terms of settling the sex abuse cases, and although I can't make judgments about individual parishes, the closings were something that had to be done in Boston, and will have to be done in New York and elsewhere, with the declining number of priests and aging infrastructure," Reese said. "There's no way to do that in a way that makes everybody happy. It's just an extremely painful thing to do, but it's got to be done."

Michael Paulson can be reached at mpaulson@globe.com.