Pope Leo XIV’s first extraordinary consistory (January 7–8 , 2026) looked, felt, and even sounded like a deliberate return to two defining instincts of Pope Francis’s pontificate: synodality and mission. But it also hinted at something more strategic than stylistic imitation. Leo is using the world’s cardinals not as stage dressing for a new reign, but as collaborators—consulted early, consulted visibly, and consulted using a method that signals where he intends to steer. In the words of one Cardinal who observed the Pope taking copious notes – “He’s up to something”.
A consistory shaped like a synod
The meeting opened in the Synod Hall with the Veni Creator and a meditation by Cardinal Timothy Radcliffe. Leo then moved the cardinals to the Paul VI Hall and placed them at round tables—explicitly borrowing the synodal ‘dynamic’ of structured listening and dialogue. Vatican News reported that the cardinals were “seated at round tables and divided into 20 language-based groups.”
Leo was explicit about the purpose of the gathering: “I am here to listen,” he told the cardinals. And he framed listening not as a managerial tactic, but as an ecclesial posture: “the synodal dynamic implies a listening par excellance,” he said, before quoting Francis’s classic definition that “Synodality is the path God expects of the Church of the third millennium.”
Even the way the reporting worked was designed to privilege the experience of the local churches. In his prepared address, Leo explained that—given time limits—only nine groups would report, “those nine coming from the local Churches,” adding a strikingly practical rationale: “it is naturally easier for me to seek counsel from those who work in the Curia and live in Rome.” Vatican News later confirmed that only the secretaries of the nine “local Churches” groups presented full rationales, while the other 11 tables “provided only the titles of the themes chosen.”
The vote that mattered: mission over liturgy
Before the discussion began, Leo offered four themes: Evangelii gaudium (mission), Praedicate evangelium (curial reform), synodality, and liturgy. But he warned that “due to time constraints… only two of them will be discussed specifically.”
When the cardinals voted, the result was decisive. By “a clear majority,” they chose synodality and evangelisation/mission in the light of Evangelii gaudium. Catholic News Agency reported that a “large majority” opted for “evangelisation and the Church’s missionary activity drawn from rereading Evangelii Gaudium,” and “the Synod and synodality.”
That choice had an obvious subtext. In today’s intra-Catholic arguments, few topics ignite more heat than liturgy—especially the fate of the older form of the Roman rite. Yet the cardinals effectively set that fight aside. AP noted that the gathering “avoided the divisive issue of the traditional Latin Mass,” choosing evangelisation and synodality instead. CNA likewise framed the moment as “liturgy sidestepped.”
If Leo wanted an early snapshot of what the global College of Cardinals believes is urgent, he got it: preaching the Gospel is urgent; liturgical trench warfare is not.
Why Evangelii gaudium is back at the centre
The real key is not simply that Evangelii gaudium was on the agenda. It is that Leo is treating it as a governing program again—much as Francis did in 2013.
Leo underlined the continuity in his address, noting that Francis “began with Evangelii Gaudium… and concluded with Dilexit Nos,” and then revisiting a theme Francis repeated often: the Church grows “not by proselytism” but by “attraction.” He even tied the whole logic of evangelisation to the “lifeblood of Charity” flowing from Christ, insisting: it is “not the Church that attracts, but Christ.”
So what does Evangelii gaudium actually say—and why does it function as a “pillar” for the cardinals’ sense of mission?
A Church that ‘goes forth.’ Francis’s central image is a Church moving outward toward the “peripheries,” not circling anxiously around its own preservation. “Let us go forth… to offer everyone the life of Jesus Christ,” Francis writes, before adding the line that became shorthand for his missionary imagination: “I prefer a Church which is bruised, hurting and dirty because it has been out on the streets…”
Missionary conversion—reforming habits and structures. The document calls for a “missionary” reshaping of pastoral life so that the Church’s ordinary routines become evangelising, not self-referential. The logic is simple: if the Gospel is joy, it should create movement, invitation, and witness—not merely internal maintenance.
A preferential closeness to the poor. Evangelii gaudium refuses to treat care for the poor as an optional social add-on. It insists there is an “inseparable bond” between faith and the poor, and that the Church must not “mince words” about it.
A sharp moral critique of an economy that discards. Francis’s language here is famously blunt: “Such an economy kills,” he says, describing exclusion and indifference as spiritual and social emergencies.
Evangelisation as joy, not propaganda. The opening claim sets the tone: “The joy of the gospel fills the hearts and lives of all who encounter Jesus.” Evangelisation, in this frame, is not a marketing campaign—it is witness to an encounter that changes life.
Read in that light, it makes sense that a room full of cardinals—coming from the daily pressures of dioceses, conflict zones, secularised cities, and struggling communities—would treat Evangelii gaudium as mission’s “operating system,” while treating liturgical disputes as secondary.
Synodality as method, not slogan
Still, the consistory also exposed the fragility of the word “synodality.” It is easy to use, harder to define, and hardest to implement without turning it into either bureaucracy or ideological theatre. Leo seems aware of the risk. At the end of the second day, Vatican News reported that he described what he experienced as a “non-technical synodality,” and spoke of “a deep harmony and communion” made possible by the chosen methodology—precisely because it helped the cardinals know each other across their different backgrounds.
Reuters, watching from outside, interpreted the direction as continuity with Francis’s reform trajectory—unity, inclusivity, and a push to avoid internal quarrels that weaken credibility. AP likewise described Leo as reaffirming Vatican II’s reforming impulse while restoring a larger role for the College of Cardinals in governance.
January was not an event; it was a template
The consistory did not end as a one-off consultation. Leo announced a second extraordinary consistory in June, close to the feast of Sts Peter and Paul, and signalled his intention to make these gatherings annual—three to four days beginning next year.
The cardinals are scattered, diverse, and often unfamiliar with each other—and yet are asked, at a conclave, to make the most consequential decision in Catholic governance”
That matters because it explains the deeper logic of January’s meeting. Leo is building a rhythm: mission + synodality as content, collegial consultation as method. If it holds, it becomes a structural answer to a longstanding complaint heard in many pre-conclave meetings: that the cardinals are scattered, diverse, and often unfamiliar with each other—and yet are asked, at a conclave, to make the most consequential decision in Catholic governance.
At Leo’s inaugural Mass in May 2025, America noted that 200 cardinals concelebrated “from some 96 countries.” A body that global cannot function as a real college unless it actually meets, listens, and argues fraternally. Leo appears determined to make that normal.
And he has chosen his anchor point: the beginning of Francis’s pontificate, Evangelii gaudium, treated again not as a historic text but as a live agenda—joyful, outward-moving, poor-centred, and evangelising.
