ACI Prensa Staff, 12 January, 2026 / 1:25 pm (ACI Africa).
Last week during the Jan. 6 closing of the Holy Door of St. Peter’s Basilica, Pope Leo XIV used a new papal staff, or ferula, which is used by pontiffs in solemn ceremonies and represents their leadership as bishop of Rome and supreme pastor of the entire Church.
According to the Office of Liturgical Celebrations of the Holy See, popes have traditionally received this insignia after their election, when they took possession of their see in St. John Lateran Basilica.
The papal staff, used only by the pope and topped with a cross or a crucifix, is different from the bishop’s crozier — the shepherd’s staff — which ends in a curve and is used by bishops and archbishops.
It was St. Paul VI who, in 1965 on the occasion of the closing of the Second Vatican Council, used a silver ferula with a crucifix designed by the sculptor Lello Scorzelli. The pontiff began to use this cross with increasing frequency in liturgical celebrations, as his successors would later do.
St. John Paul II also chose to use the papal ferula from the beginning of his pontificate. Even in the last years of his life, the late pontiff leaned on it while convalescing in his room.
