| These are the symbolic equivalents of the three layers
of the tiara. They are connected into a unity by the vertical gold
strip, representing the unity of these three kinds of authority in the
person of the Supreme Pontiff.
Pallium. The use of the white pallium with red crosses
draped below the shield is a new addition to papal coats of arms. It
represents episcopal authority, the special kind of jurisdiction that
is reserved to metropolitan archbishops in their province and to the
pope universally in the Church, what is called the plenitudo
pontificalis officii (i.e. the plenitude of pontifical office). The
style of pallium shown on the coat of arms, with either red or black
crosses on a narrow band of wool, is what is commonly known from the
second millennium. At his inaugural Mass, Pope Benedict wore an older
style of pallium, broad with red crosses, and hanging down from the
left shoulder rather than in the middle. This style is more typical of
the first millennium, and similar to the omophorion
representing episcopal authority in the Eastern Church.
Crossed Keys. The two crossed keys symbolize the powers
Christ gave to the Apostle Peter and to his successors.
I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven. Whatever
you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on
earth shall be loosed in heaven." (Matthew 16:19)
The gold key represents the power to bind in heaven and the
silver key spiritual authority on earth. The two keys are united by the
cord, again indicating their essential unity in Peter and his
successors.
Caput Aethiopum. According to the website of his former
Archdiocese:
"The shield, which is divided into three sections, displays
the “Moor of Freising." The Moor’s head, facing left and typically
crowned, appeared on the coat of arms of the old principality of
Freising as early as 1316, during the reign of the Bishop of Freising,
Prince Konrad III, and it remained almost unchanged until the
“secularization” of the Church’s estates in that region in 1802-1803.
Ever since that time the archbishops of Munich and Freising have
included the Caput Aethiopum, the head of an Ethiopian, in their
episcopal coat of arms."
Bear of Corbinian. Also present on the coat of arms is
a bear with a pack-saddle, the so-called “Bear of Corbinian." The
saintly Bishop Corbinian preached the Christian faith in the Duchy of
Bavaria in the 8th century and is considered the spiritual father and
patron of the archdiocese. A legend states that he traveled to Rome
with a bear as his pack-animal, after having commanded it to do so.
Once he arrived, he released the bear from his service, and it returned
to Bavaria. The implication is that "Christianity tamed and
domesticated the ferocity of paganism and thus laid the foundations for
a great civilization in the Duchy of Bavaria." At the same time,
Corbinian’s Bear, as God’s beast of burden, symbolizes the burden of
office.
Scallop Shell. The symbolism of the shell is multiple.
St. Augustine, Bishop and Doctor of the Church (354-430 AD), was once
walking along the seashore, meditating on the unfathomable mystery of
the Holy Trinity. A boy was using a shell to pour seawater into a
little hole. When Augustine asked him what he was doing, he replied, “I
am emptying the sea into this hole.” Thus did Augustine understand that
man would never penetrate to the depths of the mystery of God. Fr.
Joseph Ratzinger, in 1953, wrote his doctoral dissertation on “The
People of God and the House of God in Augustine’s Teaching about the
Church," and therefore has a personal connection with the thought of
this great Doctor of the Church.
The shell also stands for pilgrimage, for “Jacob’s staff,” a
pilgrim’s staff topped with a scallop shell. In Church art it is a
symbol of the apostle James the Great, and his sanctuary at Santiago de
Compostela in Spain, perhaps the principal place of pilgrimage during
the middle ages. This symbol alludes, as well, to “the pilgrim people
of God,” a title for the Church which Joseph Ratzinger championed at
the Second Vatican Council as peritus (theological adviser) to
Cardinals Frings of Köln (Cologne). When he became Archbishop he took
the shell in his coat of arms. It is also found in the insignia of the
Schottenkloster in Regensburg, where the major seminary of that diocese
is located, a place where Benedict XVI taught as a professor of
theology.
We do not yet know what the motto of Pope Benedict XVI will
be. However, his episcopal motto was "cooperators veritatis"
(collaborators of the truth).
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