Last summer I wrote a post about the Pallium Mass celebrated by Pope Benedict XVI in St. Peter’s Basilica on the Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul (June 29th). In case you do not recall, the pallium is the ceremonial scarf worn by metropolitan archbishops of the Latin Rite. Every June 29th, the archbishops appointed during the last year come to St. Peter’s to be invested with the pallium by the Pope. These vestments have spent the previous night in the confessio, or tomb, of St. Peter. Here are the photos, which I hope you will enjoy. I took the photo above from the left side of the nave during the processional. (Unfortunately, much of the clarity of the original photo has been diminished by shrinking the file, which is necessary to post the photo to the blog.)

The photo below shows what the statue of St. Peter looks like when it is fully vested on the saint’s major feast days.

Here is what the statue normally looks like:

Here are some photos from the Mass itself:

I believe that this is Francis Cardinal Arinze, the Prefect of the Congregation of Divine Worship and Discipline of the Sacraments. He is also Cardinal-Bishop of Velletri-Segni, a see which the former Cardinal Ratzinger held. Several other recognizable cardinals were there, such as Cardinal Bertone.