As part of his inauguration to his papal ministry Tuesday, Pope Francis received a special signet ring, the seal of which is used to signify approval of special Vatican documents.
All popes wear a special ring, named the fisherman's ring after Peter's initial job as a fisherman.
Initial reports on Francis' ring, a gold-plate silver band with a small face carrying a relief image of a bearded St. Peter holding the symbolic keys to heaven, were a bit confused.
Clarifying the matter Tuesday, Vatican spokesman Jesuit Fr. Federico Lombardi said Francis' ring was not quite a hand-me-down, as first reported.
Lombardi said Tuesday the ring was initially designed for Pope Paul VI, but was never made. Instead, Lombardi said, a wax mold of the ring had been kept by Paul VI’s former secretary, Archbishop Pasquale Macchi, who, at his death, passed it on to Msgr. Ettore Malnati, an aide.
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Malnati, Lombardi said, had the mold used to make a ring, which Francis then chose to wear as his.
Hand-me-downs, it seems, always have good provenance stories.
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