Nico Spuntoni
[Main excerpts:]
In these last days of 2025, the anticipation in the Vatican will not end with the conclusion of Advent. A more “secular” anticipation, in fact, is that for the extraordinary consistory on January 7 and 8, called for by Leo XIV.
The cardinals received the convocation on November 7 from Dean Giovanni Battista Re and are expected by the Pope on the afternoon of the first Wednesday of the year and then the following morning for the concelebration at the altar of the Chair in St. Peter's. ... What was surprising about this convocation was the absence of any explanation, an anomaly compared to the past. We can anticipate, however, that in the next few hours a “Christmas” letter from the Pope will arrive in the mailboxes of all the cardinals, dictating the agenda of the anticipated Consistory.
Leo XIV, in fact, took pen and paper to write to his brothers, to whom he intends to restore their original role as principal collaborators in the government of the universal Church,...
The lack of involvement of the Sacred College was one of the most criticized aspects of Bergoglio's legacy during the pre-conclave congregations. Prevost was aware of this and, two days after the election, during his first meeting with the cardinals, he expressed his intention to meet with them periodically, thus ending a period of objective decline in the College of Cardinals. Now that he has passed the halfway point of his first six months as pope, Leo XIV has decided to make good on that promise and has asked the cardinals to prepare for the meeting on January 7 and 8, 2026, by rereading two texts by Francis: Evangelii gaudium and Praedicate evangelium. These are “homework assignments” that, on the one hand, invite reflection on the perspective of the Church and, on the other, bring back to the center the theme of the relationship between the Roman Curia and the management of power.
In his letter, Leo XIV also mentions synodality, which has been somewhat of a manifesto of Bergoglio's pontificate but which the current Pope interprets in his own way. For Prevost, in fact, the outcome of synodality is communion. The last of the themes in the letter, which outlines the agenda for the next Consistory, should also be read in this light: the liturgical question. [Rorate emphasis] We know how liturgy has become, especially after the promulgation of Traditionis custodes in 2021, the main battleground between different ecclesial sensibilities.
The January Consistory could thus be an opportunity to bring the cardinals together to discuss the attitude to adopt towards the growing number of “traditionalist” faithful who recognize the Second Vatican Council but would like to continue celebrating the so-called Tridentine Mass.
[Source, in Italian]
