For starters, the emeritus pope will not be donning the One Ring - er, I mean his fancy Ring of the Fisherman. This ring is a typical part of pope-wear, featuring the image of Saint Peter fishing as he was a fisherman by trade. The ring varies from pope to pope. At one point, Pope Pius XI even had a cameo of himself on his ring. Now that's downright ballsy. Apparently popes like to keep their rings blinging with the times. Each pope gets a ring cast in gold during his inauguration with his chosen Latin name which is placed on the third finger of the pope's hand as evidenced by the picture of Pope Benedict.
Now that the pope has given up his ring, he will not be seeing it any time soon as it will be destroyed by the special papal silver hammer, symbolizing the end of his papacy (it is also destroyed to prevent anyone else from using it as a seal). We can expect a new ring will be forged in the flames of Mount Doom for the new pope, once he has been elected (sorry - I'm a sucker for Lord of the Rings).
So the emeritus pope will not be wearing his ring, but what he will be sporting are his lovely white robes. Why white? The tradition started when Pope Pius V, who was a Dominican, decided to continue wearing his white garb, rather than the red robes which until his time, had been worn by Catholic popes as well as the cardinals.
What will be missing from the outfit, will be His Holiness's red papal shoes. Personally, I loved the red shoes so I'm sorry to see them go. However, they are being replaced by a pair of brown loafers made by Mexican cobblers and given to him in Mexico in 2012. As a Mexican, I can't help but find this highly endearing.
Let's face it - the ins and outs of papal-wear are highly intricate and kind of amusing.
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