Overview
- Pope Leo opened an extraordinary consistory on June 26 with a Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica in which he said that “war is never worthy of humanity” and asked the College of Cardinals for frank, public support.
- A total of 178 cardinals attended the first session, which moved from a plenary Mass into structured small-group discussions designed to practice synodality and gather local insights.
- The meeting’s agenda draws directly on Leo’s May encyclical Magnifica Humanitas and centers on whether the traditional just-war doctrine still applies in an age of drones, nuclear arms and artificial intelligence.
- Cardinals are working in 20 language groups with strict time limits for interventions and have been asked not to speak to the press, leaving substantive outcomes to be announced after the closed-door sessions conclude.
- The consistory will end with a session focused on implementing the Synod on Synodality through a three-year plan signed by the Vatican synod office, which could translate the meeting’s reflections into concrete pastoral and diplomatic initiatives.