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VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Receiving the woolen pallium from the pope underlines an archbishop's unique ties to the vicar of Christ in Rome and to his own flock of parishioners back home, said a number of archbishops from the United States and Canada.

The pallium "strikes me as somewhat of a wedding ring — that we are intimately bound to our people — our sheep — as shepherds," said Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan of New York, "and we're also bound to the universal pastor of the church, Pope Benedict XVI."