Pope Blesses Sheep

Pope Benedict XVI has blessed two lambs whose wool will be shorn to make shawls for newly appointed archbishops to wear. The annual blessing takes place on the feast day of St. Agnes, a martyr of early Christianity often symbolized by a lamb. New archbishops receive the wool pallium on June 29. The pallium is a band of white wool decorated with six black silk crosses that is a sign of pastoral authority and a symbol of the archbishops' bond with the pope. AP