Pope Leo: ‘Cardinals, I am counting on you’

Pope Leo XIV concluded the first session of the meeting with the cardinals yesterday with an off-the-cuff address, following work in linguistic groups in the Paul VI Hall. He thanked them for choosing two themes—synodality and mission in the light of Evangelii gaudium—from among four proposals, saying: “Thank you for this choice; the other themes are not lost. There are very concrete, specific issues that we still need to address.”

By Salvatore Cernuzio 

“I feel the need to be able to count on you: it is you who have called this servant to this mission. Therefore, I believe it is important that we work together, that we discern together, that we seek what the Spirit is asking of us.” At the conclusion of the first day of the Extraordinary Consistory he convened in the Vatican, Leo XIV once again asked the 170 cardinals present for their support and assistance.

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Synodality and mission in the light of Evangelii gaudium were chosen “by a clear majority,” from a list that also included the liturgy and the Apostolic Constitution Praedicate Evangelium.

Pope Leo did not take part directly in the group discussions, but participated in the plenary session in which the nine secretaries of the tables—composed of cardinals from outside the Roman Curia—presented their work and explained, within a maximum of three minutes, the reasons for choosing the two themes. As Pope Leo explained, members of the Roman Curia are easier to consult.

“One theme cannot be separated from the other”

At the conclusion of the session, the Pontiff—after listening and taking notes—spoke again to thank the cardinals “for all the work already carried out in this first session” and for the choice made by all the tables, “by a large majority.” He stressed that “one theme cannot be separated from the other.”

“There is much that we can examine together,” Pope Leo said, “but we want to be a Church that does not look only at itself, that is missionary, that looks further ahead, toward others.”

The Church’s “reason for being,” the Pope affirmed, “is not for cardinals, nor for bishops, nor for the clergy,” but rather “to proclaim the Gospel.” For this reason, he expressed gratitude for the choice of the two themes.

The Synod and synodality, he said, express the search for how to be a missionary Church in today’s world, while Evangelii gaudium calls the Church to “proclaim the kerygma, the Gospel, with Christ at the center.” “This is our mission,” the Pope said.

“The other themes are not lost,” he added. “There are very concrete, specific issues that we still need to address.” He also expressed the hope that each cardinal would “truly feel free” to communicate with him or with others as part of an ongoing “process of dialogue and discernment.”

The journey is as important as the result

In his brief greeting, the Pope cited the words of one of the secretaries, who observed that “the journey was just as important as the conclusion of the work at the table.” This experience of collegiality, Pope Leo said, is what he hopes will be a fruit of the Consistory.

It is an experience that “offers the Church and the world a witness” to the desire to be together and to recognize the value of making the sacrifice of travel—“for some of you, a very long one”—in order to seek together what the Holy Spirit wants for the Church today and tomorrow.

The time of the meeting is “very brief,” Leo acknowledged, but it is “a very important time also for me.” Once again, he reiterated the importance of working together, discerning together, and seeking what the Spirit is asking of the Church.

“Is there life in our Church?”

In his concluding address, the Pope returned to passages from his homily the previous day during the Mass for the Solemnity of the Epiphany in St. Peter’s Basilica, following the closing of the Holy Door. In particular, he repeated the question: “Let us ask ourselves: is there life in our Church?”

“I am convinced that there is,” the Bishop of Rome said. “These months—if I had not experienced it before—I have had countless beautiful experiences of the life of the Church. And yet the question remains: is there life in our Church? Is there space for what is being born? Do we love and proclaim a God who sets us back on the journey?”

There is indeed a journey still to be made, the Pope said, and one cannot take refuge in the idea that “everything is already done, finished—do as we have always done.” The Consistory therefore serves to help the Church walk together.

Recalling another passage from his homily, and citing King Herod, Leo said that “fear blinds,” while the Gospel “sets us free,” making us “prudent,” but also “bold, attentive, and creative,” and opening “paths different from those already taken.”

For Pope Leo XIV, the Consistory is thus “one of the many expressions through which we can truly experience the Church’s newness.” “The Holy Spirit is alive and present also among us,” he said. “How beautiful it is to find ourselves together in the boat!”

Pope Leo XIV to cardinals: ‘We gather not to promote personal or group agendas’

Pope Leo XIV on Thursday called on cardinals to experience the extraordinary consistory as a time of spiritual discernment in unity and warned against the temptation to put personal interests ahead of the common good.

“We gather not to promote personal or group ‘agendas’ but to entrust our plans and inspirations to a discernment that transcends us — ‘as the heavens are higher than the earth’ — and which comes only from the Lord,” he said in his homily for the Mass he celebrated Jan. 8 in St. Peter’s Basilica with the cardinals present in Rome for this important two-day ecclesial meeting convened to help him make decisions about the future of the Catholic Church.

Leo XIV urged the cardinals to experience the Eucharist as the place where this discernment is purified and transformed, asking them to place all their “hopes and ideas upon the altar.”

Truly listening to the voice of God

“Only in this way will we truly know how to listen to his voice and to welcome it through the gift that we are to one another — which is the very reason we have gathered,” he added.

The pope linked this vision to the spirituality of communion, recalling that Christian love is “Trinitarian” and “relational,” and quoted St. John Paul II, who defined it as “the heart’s contemplation of the mystery of the Trinity dwelling in us.”

This extraordinary consistory — different from the ordinary ones, which are more limited and frequent — was planned to take place immediately after the Jubilee of Hope to “offer support and advice to the Holy Father in the exercise of his high and arduous responsibility of governing the Church,” according to a statement from the Holy See.

St. John Paul II convened six extraordinary consistories during his 26-year pontificate, while Pope Benedict XVI chose to hold consultative meetings with the cardinals on the eve of the ordinary consistories. In total, he held three such meetings during his pontificate.

During the 12 years of his pontificate, Pope Francis held only one extraordinary consistory, on Feb. 20, 2014, which focused primarily on the family and marriage, ahead of the Synod on the Family held that same year.

Unlike his predecessor, who preferred to consult with a smaller council, Leo XIV convened the entire College of Cardinals to assist him in governing the universal Church.

Evangelization and synodality

The cardinals are expected to offer the new pontiff their views on two specific topics: the Synodand synodality, and the mission of evangelization and the missionary character of the Church in light of Pope Francis’ apostolic exhortation Evangelii Gaudium. Initially, the meeting topics also included discussions on the liturgy and the apostolic constitution Praedicate Evangelium, but lack of time has limited the issues that will be addressed.

The pontiff reflected on the very meaning of the consistory, recalling that the word “consistorium” in Latin refers to the idea of ​​“pausing.” 

“Indeed, all of us have ‘paused’ in order to be here. We have set aside our activities for a time, and even canceled important commitments, so as to discern together what the Lord is asking of us for the good of his people,” he emphasized.

Not a group of experts, but a community of faith

In his homily, the Holy Father reminded those present that this gathering is not about a “mere group of experts” but “a community of faith. 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.”

The pontiff also recalled the words of St. Leo the Great to emphasize the communal dimension of ecclesial service: “In this way,” he said, “‘the hungry are fed, the naked clothed, the sick visited, and no one seeks his or her own interests, but those of others.’”

Referring to the challenges of today’s world, marked by profound inequalities and a widespread “hunger for goodness and peace,” the pope acknowledged the feeling of inadequacy in the face of the mission but encouraged them to face it together, trusting in providence.

“We will be able to help one another — and in particular, to help the pope — to find the “five loaves and two fish” that providence “never fails to provide,” he affirmed.

Leo XIV concluded his homily by offering the cardinals his “heartfelt thanks” for their service and reminding them that, even if they don’t always manage to find solutions to the problems they face.

‘We may not always find immediate solutions to the problems we face’

“We may not always be able to find immediate solutions to the problems we face. Yet in every place and circumstance, we will be able to help one another — and in particular, to help the pope,” he said, calling for collaboration.

“Beloved brothers,” the pope noted, “what you offer to the Church through your service, at every level, is something profound and very personal, unique to each of you and precious to all.”

According to what the director of the Holy See Press Office, Matteo Bruni, reported Jan. 7, of the 245 cardinals who currently make up the College of Cardinals, 170 are in Rome participating in the closed-door meetings that concluded Thursday.