Pope Leo XIV will personally confer the pallium on the new metropolitan archbishops appointed during the past year on June 29, restoring a practice introduced by Saint John Paul II in 1983 and later modified by Pope Francis.
Since 2015, Francis had arranged that, after the blessing of the pallia in Rome, the conferral would take place later in each metropolitan archdiocese and be presided over by the respective apostolic nuncio. Leo XIV has decided to return to the previous model and will himself place the pallium on the shoulders of the new archbishops during the Mass of the Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul in St. Peter’s Basilica.
The pallium is a white woolen band that metropolitan archbishops wear during liturgical celebrations within their ecclesiastical province. It symbolizes communion with the Successor of Peter and the archbishop’s pastoral responsibility for the suffragan dioceses of his province.
Among the prelates who will receive the pallium this year are four American archbishops.
The first is Ronald A. Hicks, appointed by Leo XIV as the new Archbishop of New York, succeeding Cardinal Timothy Dolan. Born in Chicago, he carried out much of his priestly ministry in that archdiocese before working for five years in El Salvador with the organization Nuestros Pequeños Hermanos, dedicated to the care of orphaned and abandoned children. He later served as vicar general of Chicago under Cardinal Blase Cupich, bishop of Joliet, and, since February of this year, Archbishop of New York.
Also receiving the pallium will be James F. Checchio, the new Archbishop of New Orleans. Prior to his appointment he was rector of the Pontifical North American College in Rome and Bishop of Metuchen. Since arriving in Louisiana he has promoted an intense schedule of pastoral visits and recently consecrated the archdiocese to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
The third prelate is James R. Golka, installed last March as Archbishop of Denver after serving as Bishop of Colorado Springs. A native of Nebraska, he began his ecclesial service as a lay missionary among indigenous communities before entering the seminary and receiving priestly ordination.
Completing the group is Mark S. Rivituso, Archbishop of Mobile (Alabama), who until 2025 served as auxiliary bishop of St. Louis. The ceremony will also mark his first personal meeting with Leo XIV.
Alongside them, four Canadian archbishops will receive the pallium: Guy Boulanger of Sherbrooke; Susai Jesu of Keewatin-Le Pas; Stephen Hero of Edmonton; and Charles Duval of Grouard-McLennan.
The celebration coincides with the presence in Rome of numerous American cardinals who participated in the extraordinary consistory convened by Leo XIV, among them Blase Cupich (Chicago), Robert McElroy (Washington), Joseph Tobin (Newark), and Wilton Gregory, Archbishop emeritus of Washington.