Program Details Emerge for Pope Leo XIV’s First Consistory with Cardinals

Working Groups and Lunch with the Pope: The Program for the Consistory

(Photo credit: Vatican Media)

ROME, 6 January 2026 — Program details for Pope Leo XIV’s first extraordinary consistory with Cardinals have emerged, revealing how the new pontificate plans to structure its first formal exchange with the Sacred College.

In a Jan. 6 report for Il Giornale, Italian journalist Nico Spuntoni—who first disclosed the Pope’s four-point agenda for the meeting—notes that the Jan. 7-8 consistory will follow a carefully organized two-day schedule, representing one of the earliest tests of Leo XIV’s governing approach.

The plan departs from traditional consistory formats, relying heavily on small working groups rather than extended plenary sessions. This method, previously used at the meeting of cardinals on the reform of the Roman Curia in late summer 2022, is intended to guide discussions on key themes, though some cardinals may question whether it allows sufficient opportunity for open, collective debate.

The schedule also includes common prayer, free interventions, and a private lunch with the Pope, all within a tightly timed program. With limited hours and a large number of participants, it remains to be seen how the cardinals will respond to this format—and whether there will truly be an opportunity for every voice to be heard.

Critics of the dispersed “working group” format argue it does not allow a momentum to build among the college as a whole—as happened, for example, at the first Synod on the Family in 2014. The momentum grew after the midterm report and then reached its zenith with the letter of the 13 cardinals, addressed to Pope Francis.

It is still unknown how many minutes each member of the Sacred College will be given to speak during the free interventions, whether cardinals who prepared remarks will be permitted to deliver them in full, and who will be responsible for writing and delivering the group reports.

Here is an English translation of Nico Spuntoni’s article, published with the kind permission of the author.

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Working Groups and Lunch with the Pope: The Program of the Consistory

By Nico Spuntoni

Tomorrow marks the opening of the first extraordinary consistory of the pontificate of Leo XIV. We reveal the full schedule of events for the members of the Sacred College.

Leo XIV will have little chance to rest after the closing of the Holy Door of St. Peter’s Basilica this morning. As early as tomorrow, in fact, the Pope is expected to preside over the first extraordinary consistory of his pontificate. In recent hours, cardinals from all over the world have arrived in Vatican City for what the Pope— in a letter we previously reported on— described as “a moment of communion and fraternity, of reflection and sharing,” intended to support and advise him “in the weighty responsibility of governing the universal Church.”

The Program

We have already reported that, in his Christmas letter, Leo XIV proposed a renewed reading of two documents of his predecessor—Evangelii gaudium and Praedicate evangelium—and identified “Synod and synodality” and “liturgy” as “themes of particular importance.” But how will the consistory actually unfold? Today Il Giornale is able to present the detailed schedule.

Registration for the cardinals will begin tomorrow at noon in the atrium of the Paul VI Hall. After a welcome coffee, the actual proceedings will start at 3:30 p.m. in the New Synod Hall with communal prayer, followed by greetings from the Dean of the College of Cardinals, the Italian Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re. The Pope will then deliver an introductory address, followed by the presentation of the work to be undertaken.

Three Sessions

The full program reached the cardinals with little advance notice. Across the three sessions of the consistory, spread over two days, working groups have been planned, from which group reports will later emerge. This method was already used at the meeting of cardinals on the reform of the Roman Curia in late summer 2022, but it is not the traditional format of a consistory. Even at that time, the inability to speak before the full assembly— as had been customary in consistories and pre-conclave congregations— did not please all the cardinals. After the Pope’s introductory address, members of the College will learn the criteria for forming the working groups. In 2022, the criterion used was linguistic, though the results were not entirely satisfactory for everyone. Notably, the use of working groups had not been mentioned in the initial convocation sent on November 7 by the Cardinal Dean.

Lunch with the Pope

Tomorrow, the first session will conclude at 6:45 p.m. with an address by the Pope and a prayer. Work will resume on Thursday morning, after Mass at the Altar of the Chair, with the opening of the second session. During this “window,” following the group reports, the schedule includes free interventions on the theme at noon. The cardinals will then have lunch with the Pope before beginning the third and final session at 3:15 p.m.

In the afternoon, after further group reports and free interventions, the Pope’s concluding address and the final Te Deum are expected at 6:45 p.m. Time is short and the cardinals are many: will Leo XIV manage to hear everyone’s views?