VATICAN CITY—Pope Leo XIV on June 29 will bless and bestow the “pallium” — a white woolen vestment symbolizing pastoral authority and unity with the pope — on 32 new metropolitan archbishops, including four from the United States.

Leo will impose the pallia at a Mass for the solemnity of Sts. Peter and Paul in St. Peter’s Basilica.

The U.S. archbishops who will receive the pallium this year are Archbishop Ronald Hicks of New York, Archbishop James Checchio of New Orleans, Archbishop James Golka of Denver, and Archbishop Mark Rivituso of Mobile, Alabama.

New York, NY

Archbishop Ronald Hicks, 58, grew up in South Holland, Illinois, a southern suburb of Chicago.

Ordained a priest for the Archdiocese of Chicago in 1994, Hicks later served as dean of formation at St. Joseph College Seminary in Chicago and at Mundelein Seminary in Mundelein, Illinois.

Archbishop Hicks is fluent in Spanish with past ministry experience in Mexico and Central America, including five years in El Salvador.

He served as an auxiliary bishop of Chicago from 2018 to 2020, before being named bishop of Joliet, Illinois in 2020 by Pope Francis. He was installed as archbishop of the Archdiocese of New York in February 2026.

AHicks said in a May 1 statement that “although much work remains to be done before a settlement can be finalized and consummated, I am cautiously optimistic about the path we are on.” survivors of sexual abuse. The archdiocese has proposed an $800 million settlement for abuse victims as it seeks to resolve a five-year legal battle.A

Archbishop Hicks said in a May 1 statement that “although much work remains to be done before a settlement can be finalized and consummated, I am cautiously optimistic about the path we are on.”

He said both sides have been working to reach an agreement and to “create the framework of a comprehensive arrangement that will deliver compensation to victim-survivors faster and more efficiently than the traditional legal process.”

In a video published June 25 from Assisi, Italy, where Hicks is leading a pilgrimage ahead of receiving the pallium, he invited the Catholics of New York to follow the example of St. Francis, “as together we look for ways in the mission of the Church to continue to rebuild it, to repair it, and to renew it.”

New Orleans, LA

The 60-year-old Archbishop James Checchio was installed in New Orleans on Feb. 18, after nearly five months as a coadjutor archbishop assisting Archbishop Gregory Aymond before his retirement in February.

Archbishop James Checchio of New Orleans, pictured in the courtyard of the Pontifical North American College in Rome, speaks to EWTN News on June 24, 2026, in Rome. | Credit: Hannah Brockhaus/EWTN News

Archbishop Checchio previously served, from 2016 to 2025, as bishop of Metuchen, New Jersey. He is from Camden, New Jersey. He was rector of the Pontifical North American College in Rome from 2006 to 2016 and has a doctorate in canon law.

In New Orleans — an archdiocese of over half a million Catholics in southeastern Louisiana — Checchio inherited bankruptcy and a $230 million settlement to clergy sexual abuse claimants that took years to reach an outcome.

“Bankruptcy means youʼre broke, right? So weʼre broke,” Archbishop Checchio told EWTN News in Rome, commenting on the archdiocese’s financial situation.

He added that he’s grateful the archdiocese was able to pull together a good payment for the survivors of abuse and that they continue to reach out to them and pray for them.

“It’s primarily the survivors, but a lot of other people are affected by it, families and the loss of trust,” he added. “The priests are affected… the morale.”

Archbishop Checchio noted that the people are resilient. “New Orleans is used to rebuilding,” he said. “Thereʼs great hope and joy in the people and the priests.”

After his appointment as coadjutor last September, he remembers reading the bleak news about the archdiocese.

But since arriving, he realized “the Church in New Orleans is vibrant” with a lot of young people and young families.

“There are people that love the faith. They love family life. They love traditions and theyʼre very loyal people,” he said.

Checchio brought a delegation of around 180 people, including family and friends, to Rome on the occasion of receiving the pallium.

Receiving the symbolic vestment himself, he said, is “a bit surreal,” after years as the rector of the Pontifical North American College, when it was his job to organize a reception for the new American metropolitan archbishops.

“But itʼs extra special, I think, with an American Pope too.”

Denver, CO

Archbishop James Golka, 59, was born and raised in Grand Island, Nebraska, as the fourth of 10 children. After 27 years in parish ministry and diocesan leadership in the Grand Island diocese, in 2021, he was made bishop of Colorado Springs, Colorado.

He was appointed archbishop of Denver by Pope Leo XIV in February and was installed on March 25, shortly after the death of both of his parents.

In an interview with EWTN News in Denver earlier this month, Golka shared that he has felt his parents’ presence with him several times during his first months as archbishop, and while it was painful to lose them, he trusts they are interceding for him from heaven.

“It’s a great honor” to receive the pallium from Pope Leo, the archbishop said in comments to EWTN News in Rome on June 26.

“I never thought I would be here this day, so I’m just grateful to God for the chance to do it,” he noted, adding that the pallium is less for him than it is for all the people of the archdiocese.

The pallium, he said, “represents Christ, whoʼs the Good Shepherd, who has found a way, by creating the Church the way he did, to continue to be our pastor and shepherd. The main bishop of Denver is not me, itʼs Jesus. … It’s a humbling thing to be able to let Christ work through you that way.”

He added that the pallium “also represents a oneness and a closeness with the Holy Father. So thereʼs something very tender about receiving that from an American pope.”

On the situation in Colorado, the archbishop pointed out that “it’s a very pro-abortion state, so many people who have worked for years in that area just feel kind of beat up.”

Archbishop Golka said he hopes to help energize those in pro-life ministry so they can keep standing for life: “Weʼre going to keep holding up the great dignity of life. Thatʼs really important to me.”

He added that priests are also very close to his heart as a bishop and he wants them to be “healthy, happy, and holy. Iʼm all in to help them do that because I’m on the same trip. I want to try to do the same thing for me.”

“Archbishop Aquila began many good initiatives [in Denver],” Golka noted. “It’s a group of people ready for mission. And so I just get to come in and kind of activate that and just listen to them… So it makes me want to be on mission even more. It makes me want to be a better priest and a better bishop.”

Mobile, AL

Archbishop Mark Rivituso, 64, was installed as the metropolitan archbishop of Mobile, Alabama, in September 2025.

From St. Louis, Missouri, he served as an auxiliary bishop of the St. Louis archdiocese starting in 2017. He is the sixth of eight children and has a licentiate (similar to a master’s degree) in canon and civil law from St. Paul University in Ottawa, Canada.

He is also a member of the Knights of Columbus, the Knights of Peter Claver, and the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem.

Writing in “The Catholic Week,” the newspaper of the Archdiocese of Mobile, on June 12, Rivituso reflected on the pilgrimage he will make to Rome to receive the pallium.

“All of you will be on pilgrimage with us — for you will be in my heart and prayers with every step and at every holy site,” he wrote to his archdiocese. “When I receive the pallium from Pope Leo XIV, it is a sign of our communion with the Holy Father. Receiving the pallium placed around my neck will be a blessed reminder that I bear and live the yoke of Christ’s shepherding love for each one of you.”

What is a pallium?

The pallium is a narrow, circular band of white wool with pendants hanging down the front and the back. It is adorned with six small black crosses and three pins (called spinulae), which resemble both thorns and the nails used to crucify Jesus.

Pope Leo XIV prepares to bless the pallia before bestowing them on new metropolitan archbishops in a ceremony in St. Peter's Basilica on June 29, 2025. | Credit: Vatican Media

It is bestowed on the Latin-rite patriarch of Jerusalem and metropolitan archbishops — the diocesan archbishop of the primary city of an ecclesiastical province or region — as a symbol of communion, authority, and unity with the pope and his pastoral mission to be a shepherd for the people of God. The pope also wears the pallium over his chasuble when he is celebrating Mass.

Before the vestments are bestowed on the metropolitan archbishops, they are placed for a time in a spot near the tomb of St. Peter, under the main altar of St. Peter’s Basilica, to reinforce the bishop’s connection to Peter through apostolic succession.

At Pope Benedict XVI’s inaugural Mass on April 24, 2005, he explained the symbolism of the pallium and the lamb’s wool as “meant to represent the lost, the sick, or weak sheep which the shepherd places on his shoulders to carry to the waters of life.”