When Pope Leo XIV sits down with the world’s cardinals this week for a two-day extraordinary consistory, the agenda may sound technical. In reality, it touches the nerve endings of the post-Francis Church. Governance, synodality and what the pope has called “liturgical peace” are not abstract themes. They are fault lines, unresolved tensions and open questions that have shaped Catholic life for several decades.
For that reason, some Vatican watchers are already describing the meeting as the moment when Leo’s pontificate truly begins.
Several cardinals had voiced frustration during the previous pontificate that they were summoned infrequently and often after major decisions had already been made”
Extraordinary consistories are rare, and this one is unusually framed. Rather than announcing decisions, the pope has explicitly convened the College of Cardinals to listen, consult and discern priorities together. That is significant in itself. Several cardinals had voiced frustration during the previous pontificate that they were summoned infrequently and often after major decisions had already been made. Leo’s move appears to acknowledge that concern — without repudiating his predecessor. Some would say that Pope Leo is returning to the ancient order where cardinals formed a papal senate of sorts because they are the Pope’s closest collaborators as the successors to the first parish priests of Rome rather than just representatives of local Churches from around the world.
Heart
At the heart of the meeting lies a question Francis himself raised early in his pontificate: how the pope governs with others. One of the three official themes — the role of the College of Cardinals in papal governance — points toward a recalibration of how cardinals function once a conclave ends. Are they primarily symbolic figures, or an ongoing body of counsel for the universal Church?
The background reading Leo has assigned to the cardinals is telling. He has asked them to revisit Evangelii gaudium, Francis’s 2013 apostolic exhortation, and to study Praedicate evangelium, the 2022 constitution that reformed the Roman Curia. Together, these texts form a blueprint for a more consultative, missionary and less centralised Church — at least in principle.
Evangelii gaudium is not a governance manual, but it is a manifesto. In it, Francis spoke of a “conversion of the papacy,” criticised excessive centralisation and insisted that the Church’s structures exist to serve evangelisation, not themselves. By placing this text back on the table, Leo appears to be signalling continuity with Francis’s vision, while inviting the cardinals to help interpret how it should now be embodied.
Praedicate evangelium translates that vision into law. It insists that the Roman Curia does not stand between the pope and the bishops, but serves both. It emphasises co-responsibility, consultation and what it calls “sound decentralisation,” leaving many pastoral decisions to local churches unless unity of faith or discipline is at stake. For cardinals who lead dioceses across the globe, this raises practical questions: where does Rome’s authority properly end, and where should local responsibility begin?
Leo’s consistory may be an attempt to ground synodality not in slogans but in concrete patterns of decision-making, especially at the highest levels of the Church”
These governance questions feed directly into the second major theme of the meeting: synodality. After years of synodal processes, assemblies and documents, many bishops are still unsure what synodality means in daily Church life. Is it a method, a spirituality, a structure — or all three? Leo’s consistory may be an attempt to ground synodality not in slogans but in concrete patterns of decision-making, especially at the highest levels of the Church.
The third theme, “liturgical peace,” may prove the most delicate. The pope has not defined the phrase, but its meaning is widely understood. The Church remains divided over liturgical identity, authority and pastoral provision, particularly regarding the use of pre-Vatican II liturgical books. Praedicate evangelium gives the Dicastery for Divine Worship authority to regulate such matters “according to established norms,” but it does not resolve how those norms should be applied pastorally.
Reframing
By pairing liturgical questions with governance and synodality, Leo seems to be reframing the debate. Rather than treating liturgy as a battlefield between factions, he appears to be situating it within broader questions of communion, mission and mutual listening.
Nothing definitive may emerge from this consistory. But that, too, may be the point. In choosing to begin his pontificate not with decrees but with consultation, Pope Leo XIV is testing whether the Church’s highest councils can become spaces not merely of ceremony, but of genuine discernment. Whether that hope can be sustained remains an open question — but the conversation itself marks a turning of the page.
Pope Leo XIV’s Extraordinary Consistory could actually matter
When Pope Leo XIV sits down with the world’s cardinals this week for a two-day extraordinary consistory, the agenda may sound technical. In reality, it touches the nerve endings of the post-Francis Church. Governance, synodality and what the pope has called “liturgical peace” are not abstract themes. They are fault lines, unresolved tensions and open questions that have shaped Catholic life for several decades.
For that reason, some Vatican watchers are already describing the meeting as the moment when Leo’s pontificate truly begins.
Extraordinary consistories are rare, and this one is unusually framed. Rather than announcing decisions, the pope has explicitly convened the College of Cardinals to listen, consult and discern priorities together. That is significant in itself. Several cardinals had voiced frustration during the previous pontificate that they were summoned infrequently and often after major decisions had already been made. Leo’s move appears to acknowledge that concern — without repudiating his predecessor. Some would say that Pope Leo is returning to the ancient order where cardinals formed a papal senate of sorts because they are the Pope’s closest collaborators as the successors to the first parish priests of Rome rather than just representatives of local Churches from around the world.
Heart
At the heart of the meeting lies a question Francis himself raised early in his pontificate: how the pope governs with others. One of the three official themes — the role of the College of Cardinals in papal governance — points toward a recalibration of how cardinals function once a conclave ends. Are they primarily symbolic figures, or an ongoing body of counsel for the universal Church?
The background reading Leo has assigned to the cardinals is telling. He has asked them to revisit Evangelii gaudium, Francis’s 2013 apostolic exhortation, and to study Praedicate evangelium, the 2022 constitution that reformed the Roman Curia. Together, these texts form a blueprint for a more consultative, missionary and less centralised Church — at least in principle.
Evangelii gaudium is not a governance manual, but it is a manifesto. In it, Francis spoke of a “conversion of the papacy,” criticised excessive centralisation and insisted that the Church’s structures exist to serve evangelisation, not themselves. By placing this text back on the table, Leo appears to be signalling continuity with Francis’s vision, while inviting the cardinals to help interpret how it should now be embodied.
Praedicate evangelium translates that vision into law. It insists that the Roman Curia does not stand between the pope and the bishops, but serves both. It emphasises co-responsibility, consultation and what it calls “sound decentralisation,” leaving many pastoral decisions to local churches unless unity of faith or discipline is at stake. For cardinals who lead dioceses across the globe, this raises practical questions: where does Rome’s authority properly end, and where should local responsibility begin?
These governance questions feed directly into the second major theme of the meeting: synodality. After years of synodal processes, assemblies and documents, many bishops are still unsure what synodality means in daily Church life. Is it a method, a spirituality, a structure — or all three? Leo’s consistory may be an attempt to ground synodality not in slogans but in concrete patterns of decision-making, especially at the highest levels of the Church.
The third theme, “liturgical peace,” may prove the most delicate. The pope has not defined the phrase, but its meaning is widely understood. The Church remains divided over liturgical identity, authority and pastoral provision, particularly regarding the use of pre-Vatican II liturgical books. Praedicate evangelium gives the Dicastery for Divine Worship authority to regulate such matters “according to established norms,” but it does not resolve how those norms should be applied pastorally.
Reframing
By pairing liturgical questions with governance and synodality, Leo seems to be reframing the debate. Rather than treating liturgy as a battlefield between factions, he appears to be situating it within broader questions of communion, mission and mutual listening.
Nothing definitive may emerge from this consistory. But that, too, may be the point. In choosing to begin his pontificate not with decrees but with consultation, Pope Leo XIV is testing whether the Church’s highest councils can become spaces not merely of ceremony, but of genuine discernment. Whether that hope can be sustained remains an open question — but the conversation itself marks a turning of the page.
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