Bling!

I'm sure Cardinal O'Malley never thought it would come to this.

At 4:30 p.m. this afternoon, just a day after he became a cardinal, he found himself standing in a lovely Roman courtyard, surrounded by serious journalists from Boston, showing off a ring.

The ring, of course, was the news of the day -- this was the day the 15 new cardinals were given gold bands by Pope Benedict XVI to symbolize their bond with the papacy.

And, seeking to keep you informed, dear readers, we insisted on seeing the goods.

O'Malley clearly thought the scene was a bit ridiculous, but, in keeping with his new openness, he cheerfullly held it out, up, took it off, put it on, explained its history, its imagery, how it felt, how it fit, and so on.

Turns out that these rings are sort of designed by the pope, in the sense that the pope gets to choose the image on the outside, which in this case is a modern depiction of the crucifixion of Jesus, with Mary and John at his sides. The ring also includes the papal seal on the inside.

O'Malley said he was not asked his ring size in advance, but that the ring was open in the back, and could be resized at home. That was a bit of a relief, he said, recalling the time he took off a bishops' ring during Mass to wash his hands, gave it to a seminarian, and the seminarian decided to see what it felt like to wear a bishop's ring, and the ring got stuck on the seminarian's finger!

Anyways, here's the detail, thanks to photographer David Ryan:

The setting for the ring-showing, by the way, was the leafy courtyard of the Casa Santa Maria, a residence in Rome for about 70 American priests studying here. O'Malley, in the most remarkable display yet of the degree to which he has been persuaded that he has to improve his relations with the news media, hosted a reception for Boston-based journalists, with tea sandwiches and drinks and, for every reporter, a rosary.

The cardinal fielded questions for a bit about the ring, and then stayed for about an hour, just chatting informally with reporters about the events of the week, Rome, Boston, and so on. He was funny and charming and seemed reasonably at ease; I even had a conversation with him about Dan Brown, but I have to save something for you for tomorrow, now don't I?

By the way, as you can sort of see in the first photo, the habit is back. O'Malley, having already had enough of the red robes, showed up in his brown hooded Capuchin habit, with knotted white rope belt, dangling rosary, sandals and dark socks. Aside from the ring, the only sign of his new status was atop his head, where he wore the scarlet zucchetto of a prince of the church.