The legend around the ring highlights a bishop who in a meeting with the leaders of the Tapirapé people, an autochthonous tribe in Brazil, was awed by their faith and resilience. He asked for their forgiveness for the way his people had treated their people. More important, he asked forgiveness for the church’s complicity in oppressing their people over the centuries.
The bishop removed his gold ring, the symbol of his liturgical office, and presented the ring to the leader of the community, saying something to the effect of “Though we cannot return all the gold we’ve plundered or restore all the lives we destroyed, we long to try to make things right. Take this ring as a symbol of my desire for what the church will be—no longer taking but giving.”
The Tapirapé chief accepted the ring and reciprocated the bishop’s gesture by removing his black tucum ring and giving it to the church leader as a symbol of their forgiveness and in celebration of their newfound solidarity.
From that moment onward, the bishop wore that tucum ring as the sign of his ecclesial office.
It is made from the fruit of the tucum palm tree in Brazil. Nowadays, people who are in sympathy with the poor in South American, wear the ring.
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