Open the church’s doors to evangelisation, pope tells new archbishops

by CNS · July 1, 2024

Deacons carry palliums – woollen bands worn by metropolitan archbishops to symbolise their authority and unity with the pope – during Mass for the feast of Saints Peter and Paul in St Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican on June 29, 2024. (CNS photo/Lola Gomez)

By Justin McLellan, CNS – While Jesus entrusted St Peter with the keys to the kingdom more than two millennia ago, and his modern-day successor conferred apostolic authority to newly appointed archbishops on June 29, it is ultimately God who holds the power to open the church’s doors and lead the Christian community forward in its mission of evangelisation, Pope Francis said.

Reflecting on the Apostle Peter’s liberation from prison after an angel opened his cell, the pope said God “is the one who sets us free and opens the way before us” in his homily during Mass for the feast of Sts Peter and Paul on June 29.

He noted that the Christians Peter sought out after his liberation did not believe he was knocking at their door, mistaking him for an angel.

“This point is significant: the doors of the prison were opened by the Lord’s strength, but Peter then found it hard to enter the house of the Christian community,” he said. “How many times have communities not learned this wisdom of the need to open the doors!”

Before 33 newly appointed archbishops gathered in St. Peter’s Basilica to receive their palliums – woollen bands worn by archbishops to symbolise their pastoral authority and unity with the pope – Pope Francis underscored the model of St. Paul as one who “discovers the grace of weakness.”

“When we are weak, he tells us, it is then that we are strong, because we no longer rely on ourselves, but on Christ,” the pope said.

Archbishop Christopher J. Coyne of Hartford, Connecticut, displays his pallium at the Pontifical North American College in Rome after receiving it from Pope Francis during Mass for the feast of Sts. Peter and Paul in St. Peter’s Basilica June 29, 2024. (CNS photo/Lola Gomez)

Yet he explained that relying on Christ “does not lead to a consoling, inward-looking religiosity like that found in a few movements in the church today,” noting instead that St. Paul’s encounter with God ignited within him “a burning zeal for evangelisation.”

Both Sts. Peter and Paul “witnessed first-hand the work of God, who opened the doors of their interior prisons but also the actual prisons into which they were thrown because of the Gospel,” he said, as well as the “doors of evangelisation, so they could have the joy of encountering their brothers and sisters in the fledgling communities and bring the hope of the Gospel to all.”

After the entrance procession, deacons brought out the palliums from the tomb of St. Peter for Pope Francis to bless them. The palliums, made from the wool of lambs blessed by the pope on the feast of St. Agnes — who is often depicted with a lamb to symbolise purity – emphasise the role of the archbishop as a pastor who guides and protects his flock.

Pope Francis remained seated during the Mass — Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, dean of the College of Cardinals, was the main celebrant at the altar — but stood during the sign of peace to greet Orthodox Metropolitan Emmanuel Adamakis of Chalcedon, who attended the Mass as part of a delegation from the Ecumenical Orthodox Patriarchate of Constantinople.

The pope invited the metropolitan to sit next to him when he distributed the palliums to the archbishops, who each shook his hand after greeting the pope.