Addressing the College of Cardinals in Rome, the Pope asked for frank counsel, public support, and a shared commitment to missionary discernment.
Pope Leo XIV opened an Extraordinary Consistory of the College of Cardinals on Friday, June 26, in the Paul VI Audience Hall, outlining four areas of shared reflection and making an unusually personal appeal to the cardinals for solidarity and candor.
The consistory, the second of Leo's pontificate following one held last January, gathers cardinals from around the world over two days to address questions the Pope described as deeply interconnected: the state of the world in which the Church announces the Gospel; the tension between a culture of power and a civilization of love; the contribution of the Church to the common good; and the ongoing implementation of the Synod. Participants are organized into twenty working groups, nine comprising diocesan cardinals and eleven drawing together members of the Roman Curia and non-elector cardinals.
Opening his address, the Pope recalled the spirit he had expressed in January: that these gatherings should help the College learn to “work together in the service of the Church” and sustain “a conversation that helps me in the service of the mission of the whole Church.” He returned to a theme he has stressed repeatedly since his election—that communion is never a settled achievement but a daily conversion, taking shape through prayer, concrete gestures, and relationships of mutual trust.
“We are not guardians of particular interests,” Leo said, quoting his December 2025 address to the Roman Curia, “but disciples and witnesses of the Kingdom of God, called to be in Christ a leaven of universal fraternity.”
The encyclical Magnifica Humanitas occupied a central place in the address. The Pope said he was particularly interested in hearing how the document resonates in the cardinals’ own Churches—“what questions it raises, what perspectives it opens, what steps it suggests.” He noted that an encyclical “continues its journey when it is received, interpreted and embodied in the concrete life of the Churches.” The third session of the consistory will return to Magnifica Humanitas specifically in relation to the Church’s contribution to the common good, including the transparency, accountability, and co-responsibility the encyclical calls for in ecclesial decision-making.
On synodality, Leo pushed back gently against the interpretation that it represents a diminishment of authority. “In reality,” he said, “it helps us understand more deeply the very meaning of authority itself, which exists to safeguard communion, foster the participation of all, and orient the common journey of the Church.” He encouraged the cardinals to engage fully with the small-group work sessions—acknowledging this is not the traditional format for a consistory—as a practical exercise in the synodal style the Church is learning by doing.
The most striking passage of the address was its close, in which the Pope spoke with notable directness about his own need for support. “The ministry the Lord has entrusted to me cannot be lived alone,” he said. “It needs your experience, your pastoral wisdom, your knowledge of the Churches and peoples entrusted to you.” He asked the cardinals for backing that was “strong, explicit and public,” and for the freedom and frankness that he called “always an act of communion.”
“I need to feel supported by you as by brothers,” he said.
Leo closed by asking the cardinals to accompany him in the daily service of ecclesial communion—listening for signs of hope growing quietly in their Churches, and not ignoring the “weariness, misunderstandings and resistances” that can slow the journey. “The Lord is teaching us a more evangelical way of living together the responsibility he has entrusted to us,” he said. “From this too depends the credibility of our witness and the fruitfulness of our mission.”
The consistory concludes Saturday, June 27, with a final session on the Synod roadmap introduced by Cardinal Mario Grech, followed by free interventions and the Pope’s closing address. On Monday, June 29, Leo XIV will preside at Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica for the Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul.
