Lenten campaign 2026
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Some observers suggest that when Pope Leo closed the Holy Door of St. Peter's Basilica, he definitively ended Francis' pontificate and symbolically opened his own... One image supports this analysis: When he appeared before the two bronze doors on January 6, he was holding a new pastoral staff.
This accessory is highly symbolic. The Office of Liturgical Celebrations of the Supreme Pontiff, responsible for ensuring the smooth running of the liturgical celebrations of the head of the Catholic Church, even issued a lengthy note detailing the Pope's choices. It explains that the new staff “used by Pope Leo XIV stands in continuity with those used by his predecessors, uniting the mission of proclaiming the mystery of love expressed by Christ on the Cross with its glorious manifestation in the Resurrection.”
This new, sober-styled staff is clearly reminiscent of that of St. Paul VI, designed by Italian sculptor Lello Scorzelli in 1965 and widely used by his successors up to Leo XIV himself. Made of solid silver, this time it was crafted by the Salvi brothers, goldsmiths who regularly work with the Vatican. It is topped with a cross on which Christ appears in his glorious body, freed from the nails of the Passion.
“As in the appearances of the Risen Lord, He shows His wounds to His own as luminous signs of victory, which, while not erasing human suffering, transfigure it into the dawn of divine life,” explains the Vatican.
Even though the Year of Hope is now over, the Pope thus keeps alive the hope of the Resurrection.
The meaning of the pastoral cross
The Office for the Liturgical Celebrations explains that since the early Middle Ages, popes used the ferula pontificalis as a sign of their spiritual and temporal power. It was probably originally a simple staff topped with a cross that they received when they took possession of their cathedra in St. John Lateran. The use of this ferula is required on only two occasions in the liturgy: when opening a holy door, which the pope must strike three times with this staff, and during the consecration of churches, to trace the Latin and Greek letters on the floor as required by the rite.
It was Paul VI who, “no longer making use of the ferula, began to employ a pastoral cross with increasing frequency in liturgical celebrations, as his successors would habitually do thereafter,” explains Vatican News. The principal difference between the ferula and the pastoral cross/staff seems to be that the ferula bore a simple cross, whereas the pastoral cross or staff actually bears a crucifix with the body of the Lord, and the pastoral cross/staff is used more often in a liturgical context.
The papal pastoral staff differs from that of bishops, called a crosier (or crozier), in that it is not curved at the end but surmounted by a crucifix. Nevertheless, it recalls the authority of the Bishop of Rome as the Successor of Peter. This pastoral staff can also be seen as the shepherd's staff with which the pope guides his sheep, the people of God.
Leo's new staff is also marked with his own seal. He had his pontifical motto engraved on it: “In illo uno unum” (In him who is One, let us be one), taken from St. Augustine. This is yet another way of placing himself in the lineage of his predecessors while affirming his own identity.
