Now you can watch the entire special right here on the blog.
A professional camera crew is joined by Archbishop Allen Vigneron’s 11- and 10-year-old nephews, Garrett and Griffin. Together, they follow the archbishop to Rome as he receives the pallium from Pope Benedict XVI.
If you want to catch a review on the film before watching, you can head over to The Michigan Catholic and read the article, Pallium special filmed with help from GVTV crew, which was published August 21.
Wearing the Pallium for the first time back in Michigan, at Bp. Cistone's installation.
The first occasion at which I used the Pallium given to me by Pope Benedict on 29 June was when I installed Bp. Cistone as the new Bishop of Saginaw. It’s hard to imagine a clearer example of what the Pallium symbolizes: That the Successor of St. Peter has charged me with serving to strengthen my brother bishops in Michigan, together with their priests and people, in our union the Holy Father and the Church Universal. This unity is such a precious gift, because it is union with St. Peter and the other Apostles – and through them, union with Christ our Savior.
One of the blessings of recordings and photos and movies is that important moments in our lives endure not only in our memories, but are captured to be relived through seeing and hearing them again. That’s the particular gift of “High Church and Home Movies,” the video about the Pallium Pilgrimage produced by my nephews Garrett and Griffin – along with “fairly considerable assistance” from the Archdiocesan Communications Office. In what I said above, I told you of the first, and powerful, confirmation I had about the meaning of the Pallium. I hope all of you will take the time to view video, so that you can, along with me and the others who made the pilgrimage, relive again that grace-filled experience.
Coming to CTND – Check your local listings, or click here to find the Catholic Television Network of Detroit. Here are the broadcast days & times:
The Catholic Television Network of Detroit is ready to air the TV program on the Pallium, which was created by the Archdiocese in cooperation with Garrett and Griffin Vigneron (who we’re glad you’ve gotten to know through this blog!). The first broadcast time is next Wednesday at 4 p.m. Here’s the entire schedule (you can go here to find CTND through your cable provider):
During the pilgrimage, we received some 15,000 visits to this blog. We’re grateful so many of you wanted to share this experience with Archbishop Vigneron. Now, we’re glad you’ll get to enjoy the program.
A note from Barb Koster, the producer…
It was seven weeks ago today that I arrived in Rome as one of three people from the Archdiocese’s Office of Communications “on the ground” to bring the coverage of Archbishop Vigneron’s Pallium trip home to the people of Michigan. You may know some of what went on during our time in “The Eternal City” from previous blog entries… And starting next week, you’ll be able to see it if you’d like to!
As the producer of A Shepherd’s Mission: High Church and Home Movies, A Pallium for the Archbishop, it was my job to Read the rest of this entry »
Garrett, Cooper, and Griffin
We’ve arrived safely home after a long flight (about 10 hours!). After we got our luggage, we drove home and were excited to see our dog, Cooper. Even though we’re happy to be home, there is still a lot of things we’d like to see in Rome. We guess we’ll have to take another trip.
We enjoyed video taping and taking pictures of all we did in Rome. Thank you for reading our posts to the blog.
Ciao (Bye) from St. Clair,
Garrett and Griffin (and Cooper!)
Warm greetings to all of you, from me back home here at Blessed Sacrament Cathedral. I arrived back in Detroit last evening, Thursday evening. I’ve come home with a tremendous sense of the blessing that the pilgrimage was — not only the blessings I received, but that were given to all of us during the days in Rome. I’m grateful to God for all of that.
I offered my Mass this morning on the Feast of St. Thomas the Apostle for all of you, because I’ve really returned from the pilgrimage with a profound sense of the blessing it is for all of us to be Catholic and to be part of the Church which Christ founded on Peter and Paul and the other Apostles. So I pray in all things you will be strengthened by the blessings we have from belonging to the Church of Christ.
Thank you so much!
Hello, again! This is going to be my last posting. We had another very nice couple of days on the pilgrimage. On Tuesday, my cousin Catharina and I went to the audience with Pope Benedict, which was very, very exciting. To see the pope as close as we did was great.
After that, we went to visit the pope’s tombs, which are beneath St. Peter’s Basilica. And when we finished with that, we got very lucky, because we were able to go on a scavi tour of escavated graves underneath the basilica, including St. Peter’s. After visiting the pope’s tombs, we went into the offices where a tour was gathering, and we were able to take the place of two people who didn’t show up (usually, you have to book a tour months in advance!). That was fascinating, because Read the rest of this entry »
A few moments ago, the bus pulled away from the hotel, beginning the journey home for the pilgrim group. I’ll stay in Italy until Sunday to travel a bit with Fr. Dan Gallagher, a priest from Gaylord who works for the Holy See in the Secretary of State. When a trip like this comes to a close, there is always a mixed set of emotions: joy for what has been experienced and a touch of sadness that it is coming to an end. However, in this case, we are really marking a beginning. From now on, every time we see Archbishop Vigneron preside at Mass in Michigan, we will see him wearing that small, but very significant extra piece of cloth – the pallium.
At the installation Mass for Archbishop Vigneron on January 28, I was privileged to read the letter from Pope Benedict declaring his appointment. A couple of days ago, we saw with our own eyes (and all of you viewed online) the Holy Father himself actually confer the symbol of an archbishop’s ministry by placing the pallium upon Archbishop Vigneron. Though he became our archbishop in January, there is now an even more tangible sign of his pastoral care for the Archdiocese and his union to St. Peter’s successor. This pilgrimage is coming to a close, but the ministry of Archbishop Vigneron is only beginning.
PS: I pray that this blog has been a great way for you to be connected to all that has happened this week. In addition to this, the Archdiocesan Communications Department will be working hard to put together a comprehensive video account of this event. It will include an exclusive interview of Archbishop Vigneron by two of his nephews, Garrett and Griffin. They were great to have on the trip and I’m sure you’ll enjoy watching the video. Here’s a teaser for the show: the boys asked Archbishop Vigneron to tell them something about himself that no one else knows. For the answer, you’ll have to wait and see. Check back to the website for show times and details.
We’re sorry we didn’t post a blog last night because it was a very busy day. Today’s post will catch you up on what we did yesterday and today.
Our day began interviewing Uncle Al in the Papal Gardens where we asked him questions and took a bunch of pictures. It was fascinating to see how much history there was in the Gardens. Uncle Al shared with us that the first radio broadcast was made from a building on the Vatican grounds. He also showed us a grotto that was like the original in Lourdes, France where a little girl saw a vision of Mary. Her name was Bernadette.
The highlight of the morning was the interview with Uncle Al. Through the interview, we learned some new things about Uncle Al and even had some laughs.
Later in the day we went to the Papal audience where the Pope greets a lot of people. My Dad, Aunt Patty, and Uncle Al got to meet the Pope and shake hands. Thanks to our pilgrim friends, we were able to sit in the front row where we had a great view of my Dad meeting the Pope.
Later in the day we went to Castel Gandolfo (the Pope’s summer house). We had dinner outside, even though there was a thunderstorm earlier. After the rain stopped, we saw a rainbow. The dinner was delicious and the cream puffs were the best dessert.
This morning we were so tired that we were able to sleep in until about 11 a.m. In the afternoon we toured the Vatican Museum, Sistine Chapel, and St. Peter’s Basilica. There was lots of history to see, including paintings by Michelangelo. It was packed full of people and at one point we had to leave.
Now we are off to the farewell dinner for the pilgrims. Check out our last blog entry tomorrow as we leave Rome.
Ciao, from Garrett and Griffin
Hi everybody. Great to be back in touch with you again. I am about one day away now from leaving Rome.
Yesterday, the last 24 hours, was really filled with a lot of wonderful events – the highlight, of course, yesterday was the audience the Holy Father gave to all of us new archbishops, and our family and pilgrim groups. I got to present my youngest brother and my sister to the Holy Father. We had the chance to ask him to pray for our parents, who, because of their age, are not able to travel. Also, I asked prayers for all of us in the archdiocese and offered the Holy Father our promise of devotion and the support of our prayers in return.
Another great joy yesterday was to spend a good part of the morning with my two nephews in the Vatican Gardens. They were able to interview me and practice their skills as journalists. We had a lot of fun. I was very happy to do that.
This morning, I led the pilgrim group in the offering of the holy sacrifice of the Mass in a parish church not far from St. Peter’s Basilica, the church of Santa Maria in Traspontina. And for me, this was a wonderful way for all of us to be close to the Holy Father because this is his parish church. He’s the bishop of that parish, and being there was a way for us to be united with the Diocese of Rome and with Pope Benedict as the Bishop of Rome.
So, we’re looking now to leaving tomorrow, returning to our own home and coming back enriched with tremendous blessings. My prayer is that all of you have found that your being with us in spirit is a way for you to have been blessed as well with the graces of these days.
God be with you and may Jesus Christ be praised.
