“Fostering common discernment” in order to advise Leo XIV “in the exercise of his high and demanding responsibility,” as well as “strengthen[ing] the communion between the Bishop of Rome and the Cardinals”: these objectives of the January 7-8 consistory, a meeting of cardinals, may seem relatively abstract, but this cautious and minimalist communication from the Vatican potentially hides a new way of exercising the papacy.
Pope Leo XIV is a canonist, and therefore a specialist in Church law. He intends to use the tools at his disposal to promote unity among Catholics. Bringing the cardinals together is thus a way of involving the whole Church in his work.
The Code of Canon Law specifies that the “cardinals especially assist the supreme pastor of the Church through collegial action in consistories in which they are gathered by order of the Roman Pontiff who presides.”
These consistories can be “ordinary” or “extraordinary.”
The different kinds of consistories
Ordinary consistories, which are public, take two forms. Some bring together only the cardinals present in Rome to decide on certain regular matters such as canonizations -- although they can also be the venue for unexpected announcements. It was in this context that Benedict XVI announced his resignation on February 11, 2013.
The other form of public ordinary consistory is that related to the creation of new cardinals.
For its part, an extraordinary consistory is celebrated “when particular needs of the Church or the treatment of more grave affairs suggests it.” Unless there are major impediments, particularly related to health, all the cardinals in the world are summoned. They currently number 245. For the first time, the majority of the college consists of non-voting cardinals: with Cardinal Zenari's 80th birthday on Monday, there are now only 122 voters in the event of a conclave.
The specific topics of this week's meeting have not been disclosed, but some Italian media outlets have mentioned the possibility that the cardinals will discuss liturgy, Church governance, and synodality.
The synodal process opened in 2021 by Pope Francis is expected to continue at least until the ecclesial assembly scheduled to take place in Rome in the fall of 2028. Through this theme, the reception of the Second Vatican Council also remains in play, just at 60 years after its conclusion.
The pope's “bound freedom” vis-à-vis the cardinals
Mgr. Patrick Valdrini, canonist and former rector of the Catholic Institute of Paris, explains that the cardinals once formed a kind of “Senate of the Roman Pontiff,” which bound the pope in his decisions. This is no longer exactly the case today. The legal tradition of the Church has instead evolved towards a “bound freedom”: the pope “cannot act without taking into account the members of the college,” but he remains fundamentally free in his magisterium.
This week's meeting, which will be held behind closed doors except for the Mass celebrated on Thursday, will therefore be essentially consultative in nature.
Pope Leo already showed his intent to involve the cardinals more closely in his magisterium when he met with them on May 10, just two days after his election. He did not content himself with the traditional formal speech of thanks but opened a space for free discussion, like an improvised mini-synod.
Pope Francis, for his part, started this process with his Council of Cardinals. While he rarely convened the Sacred College as a whole, except in 2022 to ratify the new Apostolic Constitution on the Roman Curia -- and the agenda for that meeting didn’t allow for any real exchange of views -- he periodically met with his international council.
Goodbye to Francis’ council of cardinals
The revival of the extraordinary consistory could also render de facto obsolete the “Council of Cardinals” established by Pope Francis at the beginning of his pontificate, which seems to have disappeared with him.
The dissolution of this group was never formalized, but the simple fact that Leo XIV has not mentioned it nor convened it suggests that this body is no longer in force. Mgr. Valdrini points out that in the tradition of canon law, “the law can die by extinction when it no longer has a reason to exist, which is different from civil law.”
A change in method is considered necessary by a large number of cardinals — including some who were appointed by Francis — who lamented a lack of consultation, but this does not mean “deconstructing” the Argentine pontiff's legacy. Whatever happens after this week's debates, Leo XIV will certainly employ a “hermeneutic of continuity,” to use an expression dear to Benedict XVI.
