Sacred Liturgy to Feature Prominently at Pope Leo XIV’s Meeting with Cardinals

Report: Pope Leo XIV to Send Consistory Agenda to Cardinals in Christmas Letter

[Photo credit: CNS/Vatican Media]

ROME, 16 December 2025 — In a Christmas letter to the Sacred College, Pope Leo XIV has reportedly set out the agenda for his forthcoming consistory with Cardinals, with Church governance, synodality, and the sacred liturgy taking center stage.

Earlier reports by the National Catholic Register had indicated that Pope Leo planned to convene an extraordinary consistory on January 7–8, 2026, bringing together the full College of Cardinals. However, at the time, the Vatican had not disclosed the details of the agenda.

In a Dec. 16 article for Il Giornale titled “Leo’s Turning Point: He Asks the Cardinals for Help,” Italian journalist Nico Spuntoni—citing the contents of the Pope’s Christmas letter to the Cardinals—reports:

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Leo’s Turning Point: He Asks the Cardinals for Help

“In these closing weeks of 2025, the sense of waiting in the Vatican will not end with the conclusion of the Advent season. A more ‘worldly’ anticipation, in fact, concerns the extraordinary consistory scheduled for 7–8 January, convened by Leo XIV. The cardinals received their summons last 7 November from the dean, Giovanni Battista Re, and are expected by the Pope on the afternoon of the first Wednesday of the year, and again the following morning for the concelebration at the Altar of the Chair in St. Peter’s Basilica.

The convocation of an extraordinary consistory falls within the prerogatives of the Pontiff and, as established by the Code of Canon Law, takes place ‘when particular needs of the Church or the treatment of more grave affairs suggests it.’ What had caused surprise in this instance was the absence of any stated motivation, an anomaly by comparison with past practice. We can anticipate, however, that in the coming hours a ‘Christmas’ letter from the Pope will reach the mailboxes of all the cardinals, in which the agenda of the long-awaited consistory will be set out.

Leo XIV has in fact taken pen and paper to write to his brothers, to whom he intends to restore that original role as principal collaborators in the governance of the universal Church, a role that was significantly diminished during the years of the Bergoglian pontificate. It is well known that Francis did not favour consulting the entire College of Cardinals, preferring instead to rely on a small group of trusted advisers—the so-called C9, which later became the C6. In 2022, Bergoglio convened a meeting of all the cardinals in Rome on Praedicate evangelium, but without allowing much room for discussion, not least because the apostolic constitution reforming the Curia had already entered into force almost three months earlier.

The limited involvement of the Sacred College was one of the most criticized aspects of the Bergoglian legacy during the pre-conclave congregations. Prevost showed himself aware of this and, two days after his election, during his first meeting with the cardinals, expressed his intention to meet them on a regular basis, thus bringing to a close a period of objective decline of the College of Cardinals. Now that the pontificate has passed the halfway mark of its first six months, Leo XIV has decided to give concrete form to that promise and has asked the cardinals to prepare for the meeting of 7–8 January 2026 by rereading two texts of Francis: Evangelii gaudium and Praedicate evangelium. These are ‘homework assignments’ which, on the one hand, invite reflection on the Church’s self-understanding and, on the other, bring back to the center the issue of the relationship between the Roman Curia and the exercise of power.

In his letter, Leo XIV also mentions synodality, which in many ways served as the manifesto of the Bergoglian pontificate, but which the current Pope interprets in his own manner. For Prevost, the ultimate outcome of synodality is communion. This same perspective also frames the final topic outlined in the letter setting the agenda for the forthcoming consistory: the liturgical question. We know how the liturgy has become—especially after the promulgation of Traditionis custodes in 2021—the principal battleground between different ecclesial sensibilities. The January consistory could thus provide an opportunity for the cardinals to engage one another on the stance to be adopted towards the increasingly numerous ‘traditionalist’ faithful who recognize the Second Vatican Council yet wish to continue celebrating the so-called Tridentine Mass.”

Article translated with the kind permission of the author.