Today from the Vatican Press Office:

More on the pelican:

At the opening of the Eighteenth General Congregation the Secretary General of the Synod of Bishops His Exc. Most Rev. Msg. Nikola ETEROVI? had stated that the Holy Father Benedict XVI had decided to give a special gift to all the Synodal Fathers, distinguished by Episcopal dignity.

The ring has the image of a pelican. This bird, which lives along the shores of lakes and rivers in the warm regions, feeds its little ones with food taken with the beak from the sac of skin on its chest. From this, ancient legends have imagined that the pelican, in cases of extreme needs, nourishes their little ones with its own flesh. Because of this, Christian tradition, from the Middle Ages, began using the pelican as a Eucharistic symbol, seeing in its enlivening blood the redeeming blood of Christ. Saint Augustine writes the following on this: “Habeat ergo haec avis, si vere ita est, magnam similitudinem carnis Christi, cuius sanguine vivificati sumus” (Enarr, in Ps 101:8; PL 37, 1299). The Eucharistic Christ is called “Pie pellicane” in the Hymn “Adoro te devote”, attributed to Saint Thomas Aquinas. Even poets such as Dante, painters such as Giotto and his school, Masolino of Panicale and Il Perugino, iconographers and miniaturists, reproduce the pelican among the Eucharistic symbols.
The ring is made in gold by the Company F.lli Savi (Title 750%, gr. 17,50). The Supreme Pontiff Benedict XVI, whose stem is engraved inside the ring, gives it to the Bishops participating in the Synod on the Eucharist (October 2005).

On Thursday night, a concert:

Thursday, 20 October 2005 at 6:00 p.m. in the Paul VI Hall in the Vatican City, a Concert will be held in honour of His Holiness Benedict XVI, by the Philharmonic Orchestra of Munich in Bavaria, the Regensburger Domspatzen Choir and the Athestis Chorus. Musical Director: Christian Thielemann. Program: Giovanni Pierluigi of Palestrina, Kyrie from Missa Papae Marcelli; Georg Ratzinger, Sanctus from Missa The Holy Year; Felix Mendelssohn Denn er seinen Englen; Wolfang Amadeus Mozart Ave Verum; Franz Liszt Tu es Petrus, from Christus; Hans Pfitzner of Palestrina Prelude Act I, Prelude Act II; Giuseppe Verdi Te Deum from the Four Sacred Pieces; Richard Wagner Tannhäuser Overture Act I. Speech by the Holy Father.