Vatican City - This morning, at the Altar of the Confession beside the tomb of Saint Peter, and on the eve of the Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul, Leo XIV opened the Consistory by celebrating Mass. It was an opening that offers the key to understanding all that will follow over the coming days. The Pope made his position clear in words that leave no room for misunderstanding, recalling humanity’s responsibility in the face of the conflicts tearing the human family apart: “War is never worthy of man, nor is it ever blessed by God, because the Creator has given us intelligence and will to resolve conflicts as human beings, rather than as beasts, perhaps equipped with highly advanced weapons.”
That conviction framed the Pope’s homily, which was built around three guiding principles offered to the cardinals as criteria for discernment: authentic freedom shared in faith, peace in unity, and harmony in obedience to the Word. All three converge on one point: the magnifica humanitas that finds its Head and Redeemer in Christ.
In describing his own ministry, Leo XIV also chose an image worth keeping firmly in mind. In the exercise of the Petrine primacy, he said, the cardinals encounter “one who asks, not one who commands”, because the authority of primacy belongs to “one who listens and therefore leads, one who learns and therefore teaches”.
Proceedings begin in the Paul VI Hall
In the Paul VI Hall, the Pope spoke after hearing the address of welcome from Cardinal Re. It was a very clear speech and, it should be said, a very fine one. Leo XIV set out the four themes around which the work will be organised: the world in which the Church is called to proclaim the Gospel; the culture of power set against the civilisation of love; the Church’s contribution to building the common good; and finally, the path towards implementing the Synod.
The four sessions, he explained, do not primarily concern the Church’s internal life. They converge instead on a single question: how to help the Churches proclaim the Gospel today “with greater fidelity, freedom and credibility”.
On one point, the Pope was explicit. He asked the cardinals for practical support: “I need your support: strong, explicit and public. I need to feel supported by you as brothers.” He added that he needs their freedom, candour and loyalty, because “sincere advice is always an act of communion”.
This is not a Pontiff demanding silence. He is asking openly for genuine shared responsibility.
Finally, he set out the method: “I therefore wish to encourage you to approach the work in the groups with conviction. I know well that, for many of us, this is not the customary way of holding a Consistory. Yet this too forms part of the journey along which the Lord is leading us. Naturally, there will also be space for individual interventions and, as always, each of you will be free to send me observations or confidential reflections. But I ask you to enter this ecclesial exercise with confidence. We too learn synodality by practising it; together, we learn to grow in communion. I thank you in advance for your willingness, your inner freedom and your love for the Church.”
An answer that needs no raised voice
Those final words are an answer, and a very clear one. While the Pope was speaking of war, peace, the common good and synodality, someone found time to feed their grievances to the gossip blogs of the lace-and-frills brigade. The reason? Faced with all the problems confronting the world and the Church, the Pope did not consider lace and frills worthy of a place on the Consistory’s agenda.
The names of these cardinals are known. These gossip blogs have no real readership: they survive on recycled resentments and a nostalgia in which the People of God have no interest. Yet it would be a mistake to dismiss them as harmless colour. They are the expression of a troubled world - a deeply troubled one. Faced with a Pontiff asking for “strong, explicit and public” support for the mission, that world can offer only complaints about lost lace and disrupted habits.
The Pope knows this. He asked for synodality as an attitude: openness and a willingness to understand, rather than a process to be endured grudgingly. He asked the cardinals to enter the work of the groups “with confidence” precisely because he knows that some are already ready to retreat into their own particular interests and turn every new development into a personal affront.
On the eve of Saints Peter and Paul, it comes down to this: there are those who look at a suffering world and allow themselves to be challenged, and those who look at their own wardrobes and indulge in gossip in very high places. It is embarrassing.
Leo XIV has made clear where he stands. Once again, he has done so with the gentleness of one who does not need to raise his voice in order to be understood. The tragedy is that, within these walls, those long labelled “the incorrigible ones” have chosen to wage war even against this Pope. And there is very little that can be done.
d.S.V.
Silere non possum