On the Solemnity of the Epiphany, Pope Leo XIV began to use a new pastoral staff (image).
The staff “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,” according to the Office for the Liturgical Celebrations of the Supreme Pontiff.
The new staff “presents Christ no longer bound by the nails of the Passion, but with His glorified body in the act of ascending to the Father,” the Office stated. “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.”