It differs from a crosier, the staff carried by other Latin Church bishops, which is curved or bent at the top in the style of a shepherd's crook.
[2] The staff was not a common liturgical item, and its use was limited to a few extraordinary celebrations proper to the pope, such as the opening of the Holy Door and the consecration of churches, during which the pope "took hold of the staff to knock on the door three times and to trace the Greek and Latin letters on the floor of the church".
Paul VI had actually used three other ferulas, similar in style, with the other versions having a cross bar which was straight, or bent upward.
[5] Scorzelli's well-known version has the cross bar curving downward, much like the paterissa carried by bishops of the Eastern Catholic Churches.
[citation needed] On 16 March 2008, at the Palm Sunday celebrations in Saint Peter's Square, Pope Benedict XVI used the ferula of Pius IX.