VATICAN CITY (LifeSiteNews) — Pope Leo XIV is sending a letter to the cardinals containing the agenda for a meeting scheduled for early next year.

The extraordinary consistory, taking place in Vatican City on January 7 and 8, 2026, will include a meeting of all cardinals of the universal Church on the afternoon of the 7th. The following morning there will be a concelebration at the Altar of the Chair in St. Peter’s Basilica.

“What had surprised observers about this convocation was the absence of any stated motivation, an anomaly compared to the past. We can anticipate, however, that in the coming hours a letter from the Pope will arrive in the mailboxes of all the cardinals, in which the agenda of the awaited Consistory will be laid out,” journalist Nico Spuntoni revealed in the Italian daily Il Giornale.

Spuntoni told LifeSiteNews that the papal invitation contains no explicit reference to the Traditional Latin Mass, only a general reference to the theme of liturgy. As Spuntoni explained, this wording would suggest that the subject destined for discussion could be broader and not limited solely to the controversy between traditionalist and reformist faithful.

The consistory, announced in November by Giovanni Battista Re, the Dean of the College of Cardinals, falls within the prerogatives of the Pontiff to address “particular needs of the Church or matters of special gravity,” as stated in the Code of Canon Law. Unusually, this convocation was not accompanied by an official explanation.

However, the main themes of the consistory are said to be 1) the role of the College of Cardinals in Pope Leo’s governance, 2) synodality, and 3) liturgical peace.

READ: Italian bishops praise Nativity scenes without Christ as Pope Leo defends traditional customs

According to what has been anticipated, Leo XIV has asked the members of the Sacred College to prepare for the meeting by rereading two texts from the pontificate of Pope Francis: the apostolic exhortation Evangelii gaudium and the apostolic constitution Praedicate evangelium. The indication of these two documents is meant to guide common reflection on ecclesiological vision and the relationship between the Roman Curia and the governance of the Church.

The recourse to an extraordinary consistory comes at a transitional moment with respect to the previous pontificate. During the years of Pope Francis, the involvement of the entire College of Cardinals in the ordinary governance of the Church had repeatedly been the object of criticism. Francis had in fact favored a restricted group of collaborators, known as the C9 and later reduced to the C6, limiting opportunities for plenary consultation of the cardinals.

A significant moment in this regard was the 2022 meeting dedicated to Praedicate evangelium, convened when reform of the Curia had already been in force for nearly months and characterized by limited space for debate. This approach was cited as one of the most discussed aspects of Francis’ legacy during the general congregations that preceded the conclave.

Aware of this context, Pope Leo XIV addressed the issue in the very first days of his pontificate. Two days after his election, during his first meeting with the cardinals, he expressed his intention to meet with them periodically, signaling a desire to reverse what had been perceived as a phase of decline in the role of the College of Cardinals. Having passed the first half-year of his pontificate, the decision to convene an extraordinary consistory and to define its agenda clearly through a personal letter to the cardinals represents the first concrete act of that promise.

Therefore, the first point of the consistory concerns the renewed role of the College of Cardinals as a privileged consultative body in the work of the Supreme Pontiff in guiding the Catholic Church.

The second point concerns the theme of synodality, which had been one of the most discussed elements of the pontificate of Francis. From the letter in question, it emerges that Leo XIV intends to propose a specific reading of it, in which synodality is not presented as a process of “democratization of the Church,” but as a path of communion: an instrument aimed at disposing clergy and laity to accept and to put into practice, in a concordant manner, what is established by ecclesiastical authority. This approach is explicitly linked by the Pope to the horizon of unity, indicated as the guiding criterion and key word of his pontificate.

The third point indicated on the agenda of the consistory concerns the liturgical question. The Pope draws attention to an area that in recent years has become a field of confrontation between different ecclesial factions, particularly after the promulgation of the motu proprio Traditionis custodes in 2021. The issue will be addressed within the broader framework of ecclesial communion and of the relationship between the unity of the Church and the plurality of liturgical forms.