Papal cross Papal cross The papal cross is a Christian cross, which serves as an emblem for the office of the Pope in ecclesiastical heraldry. It is depicted as a staff with three horizontal bars near the top, in diminishing order of length as the top is approached. The cross is thus analogous to the two-barred archiepiscopal cross used in heraldry to indicate an archbishop, and seems to have been used precisely to indicate an ecclesiastical rank still higher than that of archbishop. In the past, this design of the cross was often used in ecclesiastical heraldry as a distinctive mark of
Papal shoes wear the white color of his Dominican religious order, and it has remained so since. Papal shoes The Papal shoes were the red leather outdoor shoes worn by the Pope. They should not be confused with the indoor Papal Slippers or the Episcopal sandals, which are the liturgical footwear proper to all ordained Catholic bishops of the Latin Rite. As did many noblemen, the Pope wore slippers ("pantofole") inside his residences and leather shoes outside. The indoor Papal Slippers were made of red velvet or silk and were heavily decorated in gold braid, with a gold cross in the middle.