Synodality is not about power, but about guarding the Gospel, Pope says at consistory’s conclusion
June 28, 2026
At the conclusion of the June 26-27 extraordinary consistory of cardinals (program), Pope Leo XIV said that synodality is not about power, nor about the multiplication of meetings, but about guarding the Gospel with fidelity.
“It seems to me that the question of synodality is not first of all: ‘Who has the power to decide?’“ Pope Leo said in his concluding address (video). “The question is deeper: ‘How do we guard together the gift that the Lord has entrusted to his Church?’“
The Pope explained:
When this question becomes the center of our discernment, questions of authority, co-responsibility and decisions also find their rightful place, illuminated by mission and common fidelity to the Gospel ...
Synodality is not a set of meetings, nor a method of work. It is a spiritual style. It is born of encounter, grows in listening, and matures in discernment. The real question is not how many conversations we will be able to organize, but what evangelical quality our meetings will have. When we listen to each other with humility and freedom, leaving room for the Spirit, our conversations do not remain an exchange of ideas, but become a place of conversion, in which we grow together in fidelity to the Lord.
The Pontiff said that he was consoled by the consistory and said that an extraordinary consistory would be held annually, beginning next year, at a date to be announced toward the end of 2026.
“Seeing Cardinals from such different Churches, cultures and situations listen to each other and seek together what the Gospel best serves has been a source of consolation and hope for me,” he said, adding:
I believe that, little by little, we are rediscovering the most authentic meaning of the Consistory: the gathering of the College of Cardinals around the Successor of Peter so that, in mutual listening and common discernment, the Holy Spirit may help the Pope to guide the Church. Not a parliament, not a congress in which opinions or interests prevail, but an experience of communion at the service of the mission.
What we learn to live in these days does not only concern the College of Cardinals. It is a style that we are called to promote throughout the Church, so that every baptized person, according to his own vocation and responsibility, may participate in building the civilization of love and in the service of the common good.
As he reflected on the consistory’s agenda items, the Pontiff called for a deeper theological and pastoral reflection on “legitimate defense in the light of the profound transformations that have occurred in the nature of contemporary conflicts.” He also spoke about the inner suffering of many young people.
“In their questions, but also in the suffering that sometimes leads them to despair—and sometimes to the extreme despair of taking their own lives—you have recognized one of the deepest wounds of our time,” Pope Leo said. “But you have also been able to recognize in it the action of the Spirit. Their search for authenticity, true relationships and meaning reminds us that the Gospel continues to meet the deepest expectations of the human heart.”
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