The left side of the shield displays the Archdiocese of Cincinnati’s coat of arms (or simply “arms”). The plow alludes to the Roman hero Cincinnatus, who was plowing his field when an embassy from the Senate called him to accept the dictatorship. He left his plow in the field, restored order to the Republic, resigned his office and returned to finish plowing his field. George Washington and his officers took Cincinnatus as a model of public service without ambition, and after the Revolution, they formed the Society of the Cincinnati. General Arthur St. Clair, first governor of the Northwest Territory and a member of the Society of Cincinnati, changed the name of the settlement on the Ohio River from Losantiville to Cincinnati. The budded crosses, each with a sharpened foot, represent the planting of the faith in the Old Northwest. The colors red and gold are associated with Saint Peter, the patron of the archdiocesan cathedral.

The shield’s right side displays Archbishop-designate Casey’s personal arms. The white and red colors, along with the chevron, allude to the arms of the Casey and Carmody families, his Irish heritage. The shell and stars commemorate his pilgrimage to the shrine of Saint James at Compostela (Campus Stellae, “Star
Field”), and the scallop shell of Saint James the Pilgrim depicts an open hand, ready to both give and receive. The six stars represent important influences in the archbishop- designate’s life: first his parents and four siblings, then the six parishes which formed him on his journey to becoming a bishop.
Inscribed below the shield is Archbishop Casey’s motto: “Into Your hands” (Luke 23:46). This phrase, part of the last sentence Jesus spoke on the Cross and now prayed nightly by the Church at compline, reminds us that all we are and all we do becomes efficacious and grace- filled when we surrender to God’s will, walk with Jesus and place our trust in the Holy Spirit.

The cross with two crossbars and the green pontifical hat with twenty tassels arranged to either side of the shield indicate that these are the arms of a Roman Catholic archbishop.