Scottish Catholic Observer

ARCHBISHOP Philip Tartaglia of Glasgow received his pallium from Pope Francis last Saturday at a special ceremony in the Vatican.

The archbishop, who travelled with a number of pilgrims from Scotland, said it was a ‘great moment’ to receive the distinctive small wool collar worn by metropolitan archbishops over their Liturgical vestments, along with 24 other archbishops.

“The conferral of the pallium by the Holy Father is a great moment in the life of all the new archbishops present,” he said. “It reminds us of the strong bond that links us to the successor of Peter, and recalls for us the solemn duty we have to guard and teach the Faith.”

Servants of Communion

During the Mass, Pope Francis told all the bishops present that they were all called to be ‘a servant of Communion,’ and were expected to work tirelessly to overcome divisions within the Church.

The Christian community should be ‘like a great mosaic in which every small piece joins with others as part of God’s one great plan.’

“This should inspire us to work always to overcome every conflict which wounds the body of the Church,” the Pope said. “United in our differences: there is no other Catholic path for unity. This is the Catholic spirit, the Christian spirit, this is the way of Jesus.”

St Paul spoke about ‘fighting the good fight,’ which ‘is not one of those fights fought with human weapons, which sadly continue to cause bloodshed throughout the world,’ the Pope said. “The good fight of a Christian is giving one’s entire life to serving the Gospel,” he added.

Ceremony

Of the 34 present, Pope Francis named seven of the new archbishops, following his election as Holy Father in March.

Among those receiving the pallium with Archbishop Tartaglia was the Patriarch of Lisbon and the new archbishops of San Francisco, Delhi, Buenos Aires and Sao Paulo.

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—This story ran in full in the June 21 print edition of the SCO