ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Papal tiara

Okay kiddo, so the papal tiara is a really fancy hat that was worn by the pope - you know, the leader of the Catholic Church. It's made out of gold and it's covered in jewels and stuff.

The tiara is actually made up of three different crowns stacked on top of each other. Each crown represents a different part of the pope's power - his spiritual authority, his royal authority, and his universal authority.

People used to say that the papal tiara was worth more than any other object in the world. But in 1963, the pope who was in charge at the time - Pope Paul VI - decided that the tiara was too fancy and that it didn't really fit with the pope's humble image. So he donated it to charity and said that from then on, popes wouldn't wear it anymore.

So today, the papal tiara is still around, but it's more like a historical artifact than anything else. But it's still really cool to look at and to think about the power and authority that it used to represent.
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