Sri Lankan Archbishop, among the 34 prelates to receive pallium from Pope

(June 23,2009): Sri Lankan Archbishop Malcolm Ranjith of Colombo is among the 34 metropolitan archbishops, who will receive the pallium next Monday in St. Peter’s Basilica. Pope Benedict XVI will confer the pallium on 34 archbishops from various countries worldwide, as a symbol of their authority and responsibility, during a traditional ceremony on the Feast of Sts. Peter & Paul, June 29 in the Vatican Basilica. Besides the Sri Lankan prelate, there are also two others from Asia, Archbishop Francis Xavier Kovithavanij of Bangkok, Thailand, and Indonesian Archbishop Anicetus Sinaga of Medan.
The pallium is a circular band of wool about 12 inches wide and is worn around the neck. It has two pendants, one hanging down in front and one behind. The palliums are made from the wool of two lambs donated by the religious Order of Lateran Canons Regular, which raises them in the Trappist Monastery on the outskirts of Rome. After the lambs are shorn on Holy Tuesday, the palliums are woven by the nuns of the Benedictine Convent of St. Cecilia in Trastevere, Rome. Then they are placed in a bronze urn near the Chair of St. Peter in Vatican’s Basilica until June 29, when the Pope blesses them, and confers them on the metropolitan archbishops appointed during the year.