Pope Leo XIV announces follow-up consistory in June, pledges annual meetings of the cardinals

VATICAN CITY (LifeSiteNews) — Pope Leo XIV has announced that an extraordinary consistory of cardinals will be held annually in remarks delivered at the conclusion of the two-day consistory held this month.

On January 8, Pope Leo XIV met with 170 cardinals, both electors and non-electors, and formally announced that consistories will be convened annually, with the next scheduled for June 27-28, in order to strengthen consultation within the College of Cardinals and continue the synodal path requested during the pre-conclave general congregations.

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“The fact that the Holy Father has said that there will be another consistory in June, and that he wishes to continue this next year as well, is an indication that he found it very important, and that it has been in assistance to him in his role of the Successor of St. Peter,” said Cardinal Stephen Brislin during the Vatican press briefing at the conclusion of the consistory.

Pope Leo XIV made the announcement explaining that the two days of meetings were intended as a “prefiguration of our future path” and that future consistories would last three to four days. The Pope also confirmed the post-synodal “Ecclesial Assembly,” scheduled for October 2028.

The meetings brought together cardinals from around the world and were structured around linguistic working groups. There were 20 groups in total: 11 composed of non-elector cardinals and nine of elector cardinals, including diocesan ordinaries and apostolic nuncios currently in service. The methodology was designed, according to the Pope, to encourage an exchange of knowledge among participants with diverse backgrounds and pastoral experiences.

During the sessions, themes discussed included synodality, understood “not as a technical process” but as a shared journey, its implications for the exercise of authority in the Church, priestly formation, the work of nuncios, and the life of the Roman Curia, particularly with regard to greater internationalization.

LifeSiteNews previously reported comments by Luigi Casalini of the Italian blog Messainlatino, who questioned the internal process of the meeting, asking who had determined the program, selected the speakers, and decided to reduce the number of discussion topics from four to two, a decision announced by the Pope himself.

According to Vatican News reports released soon after, those questions have now been addressed, with the Holy See clarifying that the choice of topics followed a vote by the cardinals themselves, taken for reasons of time management, in which an overwhelming majority selected the themes of the Church’s mission in the modern world, considered in light of Pope Francis’s apostolic exhortation Evangelii gaudium, and the theme of synodality.

Cardinal Juan José Omella Rueda Aparicio emphasized that the Pope’s decision to convene the consistory eight months after the conclave demonstrated his desire to listen. “This strengthens us in the mission of the Church,” he said. Cardinal Pablo Virgilio David, Archbishop of Kalookan, highlighted the format of the meetings, noting that “everyone was able to speak” and that Pope Leo “listened more than he spoke,” taking notes attentively throughout the discussions.

Several cardinals underlined that the overall atmosphere was marked by what they described as “unity that is not uniformity.”

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Alongside these official accounts, Messainlatino reported off-the-record comments attributed to unnamed cardinals present at the consistory. According to the blog, some cardinals described the second day as more substantial than the first, while others said that familiar expressions such as “a Church that goes out” and “field hospital” were again used during the discussions, as well as the assertion that “a Church that is not synodal cannot be a true Church.”

The same source claimed that the cardinals were divided into two groups during the sessions, with older cardinals seated at the back. It also reported dissatisfaction among some participants regarding the current doctrinal, theological, and liturgical diversity within the enlarged College of Cardinals, though these remarks were not made publicly. “Some cardinals reported terrible things,” the source says, without going into detail.

The series of extraordinary consistories that will from now on be convened annually is connected to the ecclesial assembly that will be held in October 2028, originally called by Francis and now confirmed by Leo.

The ecclesial assembly will not be a new synod but the culmination of the implementation phase of the Synod on Synodality concluded in 2024.

As explained by Cardinal Mario Grech, Secretary General of the General Secretariat of the Synod, in a letter to bishops and Church leaders sent in March 2025, the assembly will serve to consolidate and evaluate the reception of the synod’s “Final Document,” which Pope Francis formally recognized as “part of the ordinary magisterium of the Successor of Peter.”