In 2015, Francis abolished the ceremony of the personal imposition of the Pallium on new archbishops by the pope's own hand in Rome.
At the time, this rupture was presented, as usual, as a positive thing:
After the presentation of the pallium, and in order to emphasise the participation of the local Church, Pope Francis has decided that this year the newly appointed metropolitan archbishops (residential archbishops who preside over an ecclesiastical province) of the world will be formally vested with the pallium by the Apostolic Nuncio at a subsequent ceremony in their own archdiocese. [Source]
Yet its intent was completely bizarre, how can something that is strictly related to the Roman See emphasize "the participation of the local Church"?
This novelty ends now: this year, the Pope will once again personally impose the pallium, a major symbol of communion of the Holy See with the Metropolitan Churches. From the Bollettino:
On Sunday, June 29, 2025, the Solemnity of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul, at 9:30 a.m. in St. Peter's Basilica, Holy Father Leo XIV will preside over the Eucharistic Celebration, bless the Palli and impose them on the new Metropolitan Archbishops. [source]
