{UAH} Pallium ceremony this Monday in Rome

Today Monday 29 June, the Feast Day of Saints Peter and Paul the Pope

will confer the pallium to 42 newly appointed Metropolitan Archbishops

who have already arrived in Rome with their accompanying delegations.

The pallium is an ecclesiastical vestment, designed in a Y-shaped form, and

won on important ecclesiastical celebrations by the Archbishop. it symbolizes

his authority and that of the Pope over the local Church. The ceremony will begin

at 9.30 am (Rome time) and will be televised directly all over the world. Many media

people are already in Rome for the occasion. This will be another good note for the Pope

whose encyclical on environment has won him a special worldwide acclaim, and whose very

successful visit to north Italy's city of Turin to pay homage to the Holy Shroud, believed to be the

cloth in which Christ's body was wrapped for burial, was a quake that pulled a million people

along the streets ( and he made history by dining with juvenile delinquents and migrants!), and recently,

in Africa, the overall Namugongo's four million-strong crowd that moved global waves!

Now, for today's pallium ceremony, there will be eight  African Archbishops in the lime-light :

1- Laura Lompol, Archbishop of Niamey, Niger.

2- Jean Mbarga, Archbishop of Yaoundé, Cameroon.

3- Beatus Kinyaiya, Archbishop of Dodoma, Tanzania.

4- Martin Musonde Kivuva, Archbishop of Mombasa, Kenya.

5- Filomeno do Nascimento, Archbishop of Luanda, Angola.

6- Benjamin Ndiaye, Archbishop of Dakar, Senegal.

7- Mengesteab Tesfamariam,Archbishop of Asmara Erythrea

8- Juan Nsue Edgaing Maye, Archbishop of Malaba, Equatorial Guinea.

In all the number of recipients was supposed to be 47 but the 5 who won't make it

to Rome will receive the pallium from the Papal Nuncio in their regions.

As for the weekly general audiences on Wednesdays there will be none during the month of July.

The very previous ones saw a real human tide with tens of thousands packing into an almost

overcrowded St Peter's Square. Pilgrims came fromall over Italy and the rest of Europe, the Americas,

the Arab World, Africa with many groups, Australia, Japan, Indonesia, the Bahamas, Vietnam, etc...

And yesterday Sunday at the Angelus prayer over 100,000 were present among them many environmentalists

and pilgrims from Bolivia whom he joyfully reminded of his next visit to their country where he is scheduled for this

coming July 2015. Then he will visit Cuba and the USA where millions are eagerly waiting for him. Then perhaps after

he will come to our Africa, a continent that madly loves and respects him as a real forefront world leader inspiring vision,

wisdom and very deep concern for all.

Dr G.H. Kkolokolo  (Paris / France ).