Cardinals to Debate ‘Just War’, Not Liturgy, at Pope Leo XIV’s Next Extraordinary Consistory
A newly disclosed letter to Cardinals from the Dean of the Sacred College outlines the topics for discussion at the June 26–27 meeting.
ROME, 4 June 2026 — Pope Leo XIV’s next Extraordinary Consistory will focus not on liturgical questions but on war, peace, and synodality, according to an agenda circulated to the Cardinals ahead of their June 26–27 gathering at the Vatican.
A letter sent on June 3 by the Dean of the College of Cardinals, Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, indicates that discussions will center on the “international situation” in the world and the Church, significant themes of the Pope’s new encyclical, Magnifica Humanitas, and the next phase of the Synod on Synodality.
The letter was obtained and published the same day by the Italian blog Messa in Latino, providing the clearest indication yet of the priorities Pope Leo intends to place before the Sacred College.
Although liturgy does not appear among the agenda’s stated topics, it could still surface during the consistory’s opening discussions. The Cardinals will be asked during the first session to consider the “sufferings, tensions, and questions” affecting local Churches and to identify “signs of hope” and opportunities for “reconciliation” to present to the Pope and the Sacred College.
Should the Cardinals choose to do so, the scope of this discussion would appear broad enough to encompass issues ranging from restrictions on the traditional Latin Mass to the Society of St. Pius X’s planned episcopal consecrations on July 1.
Two sessions will then be devoted to Magnifica Humanitas. One will focus in particular on questions of war and peace. Cardinals will be asked specifically to consider how best to reaffirm the encyclical’s assertion “that the ‘just war’ theory, which has all too often been used to justify any kind of war, is now outdated” (no. 192), and what practical steps might be taken to preserve and build peace.
The final session will turn to the implementation of the Synod on Synodality, one of the defining projects of Pope Francis’s pontificate and a process Pope Leo has pledged to continue. Cardinals will receive an update based on the recently published document Toward the Assemblies 2027–2028: stages, criteria, and tools for preparation, before entering into a period of “free dialogue” between the members of the College and the Holy Father.
According to the letter, free interventions during this exchange will be limited to three minutes each.
The letter specifies that the Consistory will be held in the Paul VI Audience Hall and the New Hall of the Synod, suggesting an arrangement broadly similar to that employed at the January Consistory. Whether the “synodal” method used on that occasion—with roundtables and “conversation in the Spirit”—will be replicated remains an open question, however, as numerous cardinals left the meeting dissatisfied by what they regarded as an approach insufficiently in keeping with the nature of a consistory.
The meting of Cardinals will conclude on June 29 in Saint Peter’s Basilica, when the Holy Father will preside at Holy Mass for the Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul.
Below is Cardinal Re’s letter, accompanied by a working English translation.
DEAN OF THE COLLEGE OF CARDINALS
From the Vatican, 3 June 2026
Your Eminence,
With a view to the forthcoming Consistory, which will take place on 26, 27, and 29 June of this year, I wish to bring the following to your attention.
As was already experienced at the previous gathering, this occasion is intended above all as a space for mutual listening, discernment, and shared reflection on certain matters of importance for the life and mission of the Church at the present time. The Holy Father wishes, indeed, to draw upon the experience and counsel of the members of the College of Cardinals and, at the same time, to be able to count upon the active assistance and support of each one in the various places and responsibilities in which he serves the Church. For this reason, it will be important that our common work be carried out in a spirit of listening, freedom, and parrhesia, so as to foster a shared discernment regarding the matters we shall be called upon to address.
The working sessions will be structured around four principal themes, distributed over the course of the various days.
The first session will take the form of a shared meditation on the international situation. In an atmosphere of prayer, we shall be invited to bring before the Lord what we are experiencing in the different parts of the world and in the local Churches. The sharing will be guided by two questions: What sufferings, tensions, and questions are today affecting with greatest force the peoples and ecclesial communities entrusted to your care? What signs of hope, fidelity to the Gospel and possible reconciliation do you consider important to place before our common reflection?
The second and third sessions will be devoted to a deeper study of the encyclical Magnifica humanitas, which is available, together with various accompanying materials, on the website magnificahumanitas.org.
The second session will be dedicated to an exchange of experiences based on Chapter 5, “The Culture of Power and the Civilization of Love,” with particular reference to nos. 182–192. In the face of the spread of a culture marked by polarization, violence, and increasing conflict, the encyclical emphasizes that “peace is not simply one issue among others, but a prerequisite for the universal common good and a test of the moral maturity of peoples” (no. 182). The exchange will help us become more aware of the way in which this reality painfully touches the experience of many of you, especially those who come from territories marked by war, while at the same time challenging other contexts as well, in which languages, logics, and practices are re-emerging that weaken the possibility of reconciliation and coexistence. In particular, we shall be invited to reflect on how best to reaffirm today “that the ‘just war’ theory, which has all too often been used to justify any kind of war, is now outdated” (no. 192), and what concrete paths might help peoples and Christian communities to safeguard and build peace.
In the third session, taking as its point of departure the perspective of “building for the common good,” recalled both in the introduction and in the conclusion of Magnifica humanitas, which we invite you to read, we intend to explore together the encyclical’s invitation to interpret the transformations of our time in the light of the Gospel and to direct the human desire for happiness and fulfilment toward integral human development.
In the final session, an initial period will be devoted to updating the members of the College on the process of implementation of the Synod, in light of the recent document Toward the Assemblies 2027–2028: stages, criteria, and tools for preparation. This will be followed by a period of free dialogue between the members of the College and the Holy Father, with interventions limited to three minutes.
Drawing upon the experience of the Consistory held last January, adequate preparation for the meeting is strongly encouraged, not only through careful consideration of the issues that will be addressed, but also, and above all, through prayer and a renewed attentiveness to the life of the Churches entrusted to your pastoral care. The contribution of each Cardinal is, in fact, all the more fruitful insofar as it arises from living contact with the People of God, with their hopes, their questions, and also their struggles.
I would also like to remind you that the Consistory will take place on 26–27 June in the Paul VI Audience Hall and the Synod Hall, and will conclude on 29 June in Saint Peter’s Basilica, when the Holy Father will preside at Holy Mass for the Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul, bless the pallia, and grant them to the new Metropolitan Archbishops. Please note that no concelebrated Eucharist is scheduled for Sunday, 28 June, as previously indicated.
Entrusting this time of preparation to the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of the Church, I renew my gratitude for your generous service and assure you of my remembrance in prayer.
† Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re
Dean of the College of Cardinals
I can only imagine what nonsense will be thought up by a group of "men" who think capital punishment is "inadmissible," sodomite "couples" can be blessed, and the Latin Mass should be abolished. The only war they will determine to be "just" is their ongoing war against believing Catholics and Western Civilization in general.
Three minutes each is just enough time to rubber stamp what has already been prepared. Relatively trivial matters
cannot be addressed adequately never mind profound issues like Just War and the Synodal way. Sheen warned that the Church would become a brotherhood of man without a fatherhood of God.