A few weeks ago, my wife and I took a trip to Chicago. We visited the Holy Name Cathedral for Mass on Sunday morning and, strangely enough, there was no traffic and we arrived early.

We sat in the front pew and gazed at the beautiful artwork, the striking architecture, and all but lost ourselves in the ambiance of the place.

Then, we looked above the altar and saw what looked like dangling remains of art hanging from the ceiling.

My wife asked me what they were and I had no idea. I have very poor vision so the best I could make of the hanging figures was that they were red and they appeared to be cloth. I thought, “it is either a banner from the feast of a martyr or the artifacts of a Chicago Bulls win.” Given the Bulls’ record this season, I had to settle for the former.

Just then, a good deacon who was preparing to serve at Mass saw our confused faces and he came over to greet us. He asked us if we knew what we were looking at. We told hm we had no idea and he told us a bit of Cathedral history that pretty much blew our minds.

Cardinal Burke in his Galero

Apparently, they are Cardinal galeros, which are wide-brimmed, bright red, honorary hats, elevated and suspended to the ceiling. There have been 6 Cardinals in Chicago since the founding of the now Archdiocese starting with Cardinal Mundeline and ending with Cardinal George, may they rest in peace. That’s why there were 6 galeros hanging from the arches.

According to tradition, after a Cardinal’s death, their galeros were hung to the ceiling by the tassels and, once the tassel wore too thin, leaving it unable to hold the hat’s weight, it would fall toward the altar and that would signify that the Cardinal’s time in purgatory was complete.

Unfortunately for them, those galeros are now fastened by wire now. So it might be a while before they get into heaven if the tradition is true!

Apparently this is a thing in some of the larger Cathedrals in the United States. The Archdiocese of New York and the Archdiocese of Chicago are the only ones I know of that do this.

Does anyone else have a galero hanging in their Cathedral? I would love to hear if this is common practice in other Dioceses and Archdioceses both in the U.S and internationally.