Posted on 06/30/2003 2:51:35 AM PDT by NYer
As thousands of pilgrims and tourists watched, Milwaukee Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan was the first of 40 new archbishops from around the world to receive their palliums - the stole-like symbol of authority - from Pope John Paul II at an outdoor Mass Sunday in St. Peter's Square.
"I went up and knelt in front of him, and he put the pallium on me, and then he said, 'Pax vobiscum,' peace be with you," Dolan said in a telephone interview afterward from Rome.
"And I said, 'Et cum spiritu tuo' (And also with you). And he looked at me and he said, 'Milwaukee.'
"And I said, 'Yes, Milwaukee, Holy Father. We love you very much, and I ask your blessings.'
"And he said, 'Bene, bene' (Good, good)."
At one point during Mass, Dolan stood at the pope's side and recited the first part of the Eucharistic prayer.
"That was very moving for me, plus, I was nervous because the Eucharistic prayer was in Latin, so I was worried that it wouldn't come back to me, but people said I didn't make a fool out of myself," Dolan said.
Because Italy is in the midst of a record-setting heat wave, the ceremony and Mass began at 6 p.m., when at least half of the vast square was in shade, the archbishop added.
Some 600 people, most from the Milwaukee area and some from Dolan's home diocese of St. Louis, are accompanying Dolan on an eight-day pilgrimage and were present at Sunday's Mass. That included Milwaukee's archdiocesan choir, which sang a prelude and joined other choirs during Mass, said Father Paul Hartmann, Milwaukee's judicial vicar.
Hartmann estimated that 30,000 to 35,000 people were in the square for Sunday's Mass.
Dolan is well-known among the hierarchy. He served five years as secretary to two papal delegates to the United States in Washington, D.C., and seven years as rector of the elite Pontifical North American Seminary in Rome.
He spoke on the telephone with a reporter Sunday night while looking at the illuminated dome of St. Peter's Basilica from a terrace in the Vatican Gardens outside the residence of Bishop James Harvey, a Milwaukee native who is head of the papal household.
But that is not why he was the first archbishop - and the only one from the United States - to receive his pallium Sunday. The order was determined by seniority, and Dolan's appointment by the pope as archbishop on June 25, 2002, was the oldest appointment.
Because new archbishops receive their palliums on June 29, the Feast of SS Peter and Paul, Dolan could have received his last year. But Dolan wanted to wait until after he was officially installed as Milwaukee's archbishop. And, he said, he wanted to organize a pilgrimage with local people to make the pallium reception "an occasion of interior renewal, a real affirmation of the bonds of affection and loyalty between the people of God of the Archdiocese of Milwaukee and the Apostolic See, the successor of St. Peter."
"Thanks be to God, it has been an occasion of genuine renewal," Dolan said of the pilgrimage, which runs through Thursday. "We have prayed together, walked together, eaten together, laughed together. It has just been beautiful. It is interior renewal, and not only that, these folks become friends."
Dolan said the pope was weaker than when he last saw him in October, when the pope stood and greeted him in a personal audience.
“You can tell he’s in pain. You can tell his legs are fragile,” Dolan said. “It was clear to me that those times of movement for him were very difficult.”
But Dolan also said the pope’s spirit was still strong.
“His voice is alert. He has animation in his eyes,” Dolan said.
LOL
Looks like ICEL also writes for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
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