Dear Sisters and Brothers in Christ,
Today the Church celebrates the Solemnity of SS. Peter and Paul. These two pillars of the Christian Faith, Peter, the leader of the 12 Apostles and first “bishop” of Rome, and Paul, commissioned by Christ Himself to bring the Gospel to the Gentiles, both died as martyrs for the Faith.
The pastoral journeys of both men brought them finally to Rome, the imperial city. Tradition holds that they were both martyred on the same day, Peter by being crucified upside down in Nero’s circus (adjacent to where St. Peter’s Basilica stands today) and Paul, by beheading, near Tre Fontane (Three Fountains) along the Ostian Way outside of Rome’s city walls.
The commemoration of the deaths of these two great saints seems to have been liturgically celebrated as early as the mid-200s. Today in both east and west, Christians continue to commemorate the martyrdom of Peter & Paul.
In Rome, June 29th,is the day when newly appointed archbishops receive the pallium from the Pope. The pallium is a white fabric band made from lambs’ wool worn around the neck which represents jurisdictional authority of metropolitan archbishops and is a symbol of the archbishop’s communion with the See of Peter.
Archbishop McKnight, our newly installed archbishop, will be traveling to Rome to receive the pallium from Pope Leo XIV on June 29th. Archbishops normally only wear the pallium in their own archdiocese or within other dioceses of the ecclesiastical province over which they have jurisdiction. In Kansas, this includes not only the Archdiocese of Kansas City in Kansas, but the dioceses of Wichita, Salina, and Dodge City, as well.
We are grateful for these two great saints, Peter and Paul, whom we commemorate today for their heroic witness to the Faith and their zeal to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Sincerely yours in Christ Jesus, the Way, the Truth and the Life,
