A Consistory That Signals More Than Continuity

This week, Pope Leo XIV has summoned the entire College of Cardinals to Rome for an Extraordinary Consistory — his first since ascending to the Chair of Peter. On the surface, the official agenda looks familiar: synodality, evangelisation, Curial reform, a renewed reading of Evangelii Gaudium and Praedicate Evangelium. The language would not have been out of place a decade ago. But appearances can be deceiving. What matters just as much as what is being discussed is how it is being discussed. For the first time in years, all cardinals are being asked to participate in sustained, structured consultation rather than observing from the sidelines while decisions emerge elsewhere. It is quite extraordinary to think that the last real extraordinary consistory (with the exception of a meeting in August 2022) dates back to February 2014. Interesting fact: Prevost, in the Sacred College since 2023, will be among the "first-timers" at this consistory he has called! That fact alone raises important questions about governance, authority, and whether a quiet recalibration is already underway in Rome. In my latest long-form analysis, published at Catholic Unscripted, I explore why this consistory may represent something more than routine Vatican business. The article examines the tension between Bergoglian rhetoric and Leonine method, the sidelining of the College of Cardinals in recent years, and why Pope Leo XIV’s choice to restore this ancient consultative mechanism matters far more than most headlines suggest. Subscribers will also find a careful examination of unresolved issues that hover just beneath the agenda’s surface: the ongoing liturgical conflicts unleashed after Traditionis custodes, the global fallout from Fiducia Supplicans, and the deeper question of whether synodality has been practised in a way that truly disperses authority, or simply relocates it. This is not a breaking-news summary. It is an attempt to read the moment with historical memory and ecclesial realism, asking what this consistory reveals about the governing instincts of a new pontificate and the lessons being drawn from the last. 👉 Read the full article and support independent Catholic analysis by subscribing at: www.catholicunscripted.com If you care about how the Church is governed, not just how it speaks about governance, this is a moment worth paying attention to.