Day Four Photos and Update

Catholic News Service photo / Paul Haring

From John Shaughnessy, assistant editor of our weekly newspaper, The Criterion: 

ROME--Behind the main altar of St. Peter's Basilica, the brilliant stained glass image of the Holy Spirit as a dove glowed down as Archbishop Joseph W. Tobin knelt in front of Pope Francis to receive his pallium on June 29.

Flashing a warm smile, the pope placed the pallium--a circular band made from lamb's wool--around the shoulders of Archbishop Tobin. In that special moment which established his role as the shepherd of the archdiocese and his communion with the pope, Archbishop Tobin listened as the pope told him, "May the cross bear good fruit." In response, the archbishop said, "You can count on us."
 
The warm exchange between the pope and the archbishop occurred in Spanish, the language that first connected the two men when they served together as part of a Spanish-speaking work group at the Synod of Bishops in 2005.
 
In fact, before the Pallium Mass, Pope Francis greeted Archbishop Tobin, and their conversation soon turned to a comment that Archbishop Tobin had long ago shared during the synod--a comment in which Archbishop Tobin told then-Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio that his mother wanted him as pope in 2005 because of his simplicity and his care for people.
 

Photo by Peggy Fowley

"He said, 'I've been praying intensely for you, and I hope your mother is praying for me,' " Archbishop Tobin recalled after the Pallium Mass. "He also had a few personal comments for me that I'd like to keep in my heart."
 
The archbishop shared his exchange with the pope during an interview at a reception following the Pallium Mass. As part of the Mass, 34 archbishops from 19 countries, including three other archbishops from the United States, received their palliums from Pope Francis. (See Catholic News Service coverage of the Mass here)
 
Noting that he was a "little dazed" from the events of the morning, Archbishop Tobin said he drew strength from thinking about the life of St. Peter.

"I was thinking of Peter who was buried there (in St. Peter's Basilica), and whose feast day we were celebrating today. He was someone who could speak easily and whose deeds didn't always measure up." The archbishop then made a reference to St. Peter leaving a boat to walk to Jesus in a stormy sea, losing faith momentarily and sinking before Jesus reached out to save him.
 
"I feel at times that I'm out of the boat," the archbishop noted. "But if I'm fixed on Christ, I can do it."

Archbishop Tobin also drew strength from the wealth of support he received at St. Peter's Basilica which overflowed with people from around the world, including his family members, friends, a group from Marian University in Indianapolis, and the 80 pilgrims who are making a pilgrimage to Rome with him this week.
 
"Part of the prayer is 'the yoke is easy, and the burden is light,' " the archbishop said. "The yoke is easy knowing I'm where I'm meant to be--with the Church in central and southern Indiana."
 
See a photo gallery from Day Four of the pilgrimage