Pope indicates new governing style for Catholic Church with regular, annual cardinal meetings

Cardinals said the proposed date for the second session would be June 27-28, before a big June 29 feast day.

Pope Francis had largely eschewed consistories and the College of Cardinals as a whole to help him govern. Instead, Francis had a hand-picked group of nine cardinals who met every few months at the Vatican to advise him.

Before the May conclave that elected Leo, some of the 245 cardinals had complained about Francis’ go-it-alone governing style and called for the new pope to convene regular consistories so the cardinals could gather as a group and advise the pope on pressing issues facing the church.

Leo made clear he had heard their complaints and was responding to them. He convened his first consistory the day after he closed out the 2025 Holy Year, which in some ways signaled the start of his pontificate after he wrapped up Francis' Jubilee obligations.

“I think the pope wants to be collegial, and he wants to draw on the experience and the knowledge of different cardinals coming from all the different parts of the world," Cardinal Stephen Brislin, archbishop of Johannesburg, South Africa, told a press conference after the meeting.

"Because obviously the Catholic Church is a universal body, and the richness that comes from the experiences of people in other parts of the world really helps, I think, the successor of Peter in order to give leadership to the church,” he said.

Cardinals said regular meetings also would allow them to get to know one another better, since many hail from remote countries and rarely have a chance to get together. During the pre-conclave meetings, cardinals had complained that there were some among them whom they had never met, posing a problem about electing the next pope.

“It was very fruitful because it allowed us to know one another better, to be in contact with the pope and take the pulse of how things are going," said Cardinal Cristóbal López Romero, archbishop of Rabat, Morocco.

For the cardinals gathered, the meeting also gave them a chance to get to know Leo better. To many, history's first U.S. pope remains something of an enigma, since he tends to listen more than he speaks and hasn't made grand gestures announcing priorities or big decisions.

Cardinal Pablo Virgilio David, bishop of Kalookan, Philippines, said Leo took copious notes as cardinals spoke, though he confessed he didn't know what the end result might be.

“Your guess is as good as mine,” he said. “All I know was he was taking down notes very, very seriously. So he must be up to something.”

Cardinal Jean-Paul Vesco, the archbishop of Algiers, Algeria, said he was struck by Leo's coherence, attentiveness and simplicity.

“There is something being built, a willingness to work together," Vesco said. "And what really struck me, more than anything that was said, was this figure of the pope, whom we are now discovering as pope. And in his simplicity, we feel loved, we want to love him, and then there is the brotherhood between us.”

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