June consistory to focus on just war, international affairs, and 'Magnifica humanitas'

The meeting will also include a synodal update, with time for feedback.

The College of Cardinals’ extraordinary consistory in June will discuss the situation of local Churches, the doctrine of just war, societal changes and the desire for God in light of Magnifica humanitas, and the next steps in the synodal process, the Vatican has announced.

Cardinals at the inauguration Mass of Pope Leo XIV. Credit: Edgar Beltran/Pillar Media.

While there had been speculation that the liturgy would feature as a formal discussion topic, several cardinals told The Pillar there was little expectation among the college this would be the case, especially after Pope Leo said in an April letter to the College of Cardinals that he wished to focus on the subject of evangelization and the text Evangelii Gaudium.

Vatican media announced Jun. 4 that the Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, dean of the College of Cardinals, circulated a letter on June 3 to the College of Cardinals formally convening the expected extraordinary consistory on June 26 and 27, to serve as “a space of mutual listening, discernment and shared reflection on issues of particular importance for the life and mission of the Church today.”

Re said that Pope Leo sees the consistory as a way of gathering “the experience and counsel of the members of the College of Cardinals,” and to rely on “the active assistance and support of each one in the various places and responsibilities in which they serve the Church.”

The consistory will discuss four main themes, according to the dean. The first session, during the morning of June 26, will be a “shared meditation beginning with the international situation.”

“In an atmosphere of prayer, we will be invited to bring before the Lord what we are experiencing in different parts of the world and in the local Churches.”

Re said in his letter that the discussion will be guided by two questions: “What sufferings, tensions, and questions are most acutely affecting the peoples and ecclesial communities entrusted to His care today? What signs of hope, of fidelity to the Gospel, and of possible reconciliation do you feel it is important to bring to our shared listening?”

The second and third sessions will discuss aspects of Pope Leo’s first encyclical, Magnifica humanitas.

The second session, scheduled for the afternoon of June 26, will focus on chapter 5 — especially paragraphs 182–192, which address peace and conflict in the world. Paragraph 192, in particular, calls for a rethinking of “just war” theory, and Re said the cardinals will discuss that question in greater detail.

The third session, to be held in the morning of June 27, will discuss the “building for the common good” perspective mentioned in the introduction and conclusion of the Leonine encyclical, to “explore together the encyclical’s call to interpret the transformations of our time in the light of the Gospel and to direct the human desire for happiness and fulfillment toward integral human development.”

The last session, to be held in the afternoon of June 27, the cardinals will receive an update on the process of implementation of the Synod on Synodality, particularly on the 2027-2028 ecclesiastical assemblies, followed by a time of open dialogue with the presence of the pope, with three-minute open interventions by cardinals.

Re asked cardinals to prepare adequately for the meeting, “through prayer and a renewed attentiveness to the life of the Churches entrusted to his pastoral care.”

“In fact, the contribution of each Cardinal is all the more fruitful the more it springs from a living contact with the People of God, with their hopes, their questions, and even their struggles.”

The consistory will conclude on June 29, with the Mass for the Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul, in which the Pope will bless the pallia and confer them upon new metropolitan archbishops. While it had been expected that there would be a second Mass with the pope on June 28, the letter says this will not be the case.

Prior to the announcement from the Vatican, some commentators had played expectations that this extraordinary consistory of cardinals would take up the question of liturgy, especially the Extraordinary Form of the Mass, which remains a live issue in many parts of the Church. However, several cardinals told The Pillar that they did not expect a discussion on the liturgy in the near future.

In an April letter to the College of Cardinals, Pope Leo previously said that he wished the cardinals to focus their discussions on evangelization and more specifically on Evangelii Gaudium. Although the document is not mentioned in Cardinal Re’s letter.

In his April letter, the pope said he wished to “focus in particular on what emerged from the groups regarding Evangelii Gaudium, especially concerning mission and the transmission of the faith.”

“Among the specific suggestions that emerged, the following deserve to be welcomed and reflected on further: the need to relaunch Evangelii Gaudium through an honest assessment of what has actually been embraced over the years and what, by contrast, remains unfamiliar or unimplemented,” the papal letter said.

The letter also mentioned as suggestions made by cardinals the “particular attention to the necessary reforms of the processes of Christian initiation; the importance of valuing apostolic and pastoral visits as authentic opportunities for kerygmatic proclamation… and the similar need to reassess the effectiveness of ecclesial communication, including at the level of the Holy See, from a more explicitly missionary perspective.”

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The previous extraordinary consistory, held in January, was the first to be held in several years, after Pope Francis largely discontinued the gatherings during his pontificate, preferring to meet with cardinals individually or in small groups.

Ahead of the conclave that elected Pope Leo XIV, a number of cardinals raised concerns about a perceived lack of consultation under Francis – and that the dearth of consistories meant that members of the college had not had the chance to come to know each other well.

After the meeting in January, cardinals said the pope had called for another extraordinary consistory in late June, and suggested that he intends to hold such gatherings annually.

Beginning next year, they said, the pope announced he intends for the gatherings to be longer — three or four days — after many cardinals said they believed the two-day timeframe was too short to have a substantive discussion and forced them to choose between topics.