Pope Leo to hold annual consistories

The yearly meetings will allow for prayer and dialogue among the world's cardinals.

Pope Leo has announced that he will hold an annual consistory for discussion and consultation with the world’s cardinals, beginning this year in June.

Pope Leo XIV presides at Mass with the cardinals in Rome for the consistory this week. Credit: Abaca Press/Alamy.

The announcement was made Jan. 8, at the conclusion of Leo’s first extraordinary consistory.

The pope plans to hold a second consistory this year, followed by annual, slightly longer meetings of the College of Cardinals starting next year.

This year’s extraordinary consistory was the first to be held in years, after Pope Francis largely eschewed 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 complained about a 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.

In his homily during Mass on Jan. 8, Pope Leo told the cardinals that they were at the consistory “not to promote personal or group ‘agendas,’ but to entrust our plans and inspirations to a discernment that transcends us … and which comes only from the Lord.”

“Our College, while rich in many skills and remarkable gifts, is not called primarily to be a mere group of experts, but a community of faith,” the pope said. “Only when the gifts that each person brings are offered to the Lord and returned by him, will they bear the greatest fruit according to his providence.”

Several cardinals exiting the current consistory told The Pillar they were happy with the suggestion to have annual gatherings for discussion and prayer.

“We’re very happy,” said Cardinal Fernando Chomalí of Santiago de Chile.

Cardinals said the pope has called for another extraordinary consistory June 27-28 this year, 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.

Many cardinals said that the discussions over the last few days focused on a return to the evangelical mission of the Church.

Cardinal Wilfred Napier, Archbishop Emeritus of Durban, told The Pillar that the discussion focused on getting “back to basics.”

“We talked a bit about the liturgy, there was bits of everything. But the main thing was getting back to basic evangelization. The best part was that we all got to study Evangelii Gaudium, which is a most beautiful document on how the Church should evangelize,” he said.

“It gets back to really just getting people to understand who Jesus was, explaining what the Gospel says about him and how we can make the Gospel life our life as well. So, going back to the original mission of the Church.”

Several cardinals told The Pillar that they were happy with the format used for this year’s consistory.

In the past, consistories have typically consisted mostly of plenary sessions. This year’s format included two plenary sessions – with time for 25 cardinals to address the entire college – but the majority of the gathering was spent in small groups, similar to the Synod on Synodality.

Some cardinals initially reported being apprehensive or confused about the new format. But as they left Paul VI Hall, a number told The Pillar that they believe it ultimately facilitated longer, more in-depth conversations.

“It’s very good because we come closer to one another and we learn to speak together. We come from different parts of the world so it’s a good thing,” said Cardinal Anders Arbolerius of Stockholm.

“I’m very happy, very much. We talked about synodality, but to see it in action is another thing altogether,” Napier added.

Cardinal Cristóbal López Romero of Rabat, Morocco, said he believes this year’s format was much more effective than the previous format.

“All can participate, it’s not like an assembly in which maybe 20 or 30 talk and the rest listen. So everything that favors the participation of all [of the cardinals] and to listen to all different sensibilities is always positive.”

Asked about whether liturgy featured prominently in this year’s discussion, several cardinals told The Pillar it was not a major focus -- but they expect it will come up again in the future.

There were four initial topics raised by Pope Leo as subjects for discussion at the consistory: Synodality, liturgy, reform of the curia, and Pope Francis’ apostolic exhortation Evangelii Gaudium.

Time constraints, however, meant that the four topics did not all receive a thorough discussion at this gathering. Synodality and Evangelii Gaudium were chosen as the main focuses for this meeting, with the other topics left to be addressed in the future.

“We still spoke about the liturgy and the reform of the curia, they’re connected to the other issues, so I don’t think they will be left out, they will be considered,” López Romero added.

“There are many questions that we still have to cope with,” noted Arbolerius.

But it was a very good atmosphere. The center is to give Christ to the world… and help the Church to be a missionary Church.”