O'Malley's newest ring depicts crucifixion

The ring that Pope Benedict XVI yesterday gave Cardinal Sean P. O'Malley is a huge gold band -- perhaps an inch wide -- with a modern image of the crucifixion on the front and the pope's coat of arms engraved on the inside.

O'Malley, somewhat bemusedly, displayed the ring yesterday to the Boston news media, joking that he was going to develop arthritis from moving his hand around to satisfy all the photographers.

He said Benedict had placed the ring directly on his finger -- the fourth finger of the right hand -- while reciting a prayer in Latin. The ring is supposed to symbolize a cardinal's bond with the pope.

The crucifixion scene on the ring, which changes from papacy to papacy, depicts Jesus on the cross, with Mary and John standing by, in a reference to a line in the Gospel of John, O'Malley said.

''The ring in Spanish is called esposa -- or spouse -- because of the idea of being wedded to the church," he said. ''Giving a cardinal a ring is calling us to reconsecrate ourselves to our ordination as pastors of the church, and particularly to be witnesses of Christ's love, God's love for us, which is expressed in his sacrificial death on the cross."

Asked how the ring was sized, O'Malley said he too had wondered that, and discovered that the ring is an open band that can be resized at home.

He said he was relieved, recalling a moment when he removed his bishop's ring during a Mass to wash his hands, and a seminarian who was asked to hold it tried it on, and the ring got stuck on the seminarian's finger.

O'Malley has an unusual collection of rings because of his unusual career path -- he has served as bishop of four dioceses -- the Virgin Islands, Fall River, Palm Beach, and Boston -- and received a ring for each, in addition to the cardinal's ring yesterday. Asked what he has done with his previous rings, he said, ''they're in a box."