Vatican City — Vatican City (AFP) – Pope Leo XIV He announced Thursday that he intends to bring the world’s Catholic cardinals together annually, signaling a new governing style for the church that involves consulting its top leaders regularly and as a group.
in End of his first sessionWhile calling for such meetings, Leo asked the cardinals to return to Rome for a second session at the end of June, and from then on on an annual basis for three to four days every year, Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni said.
The cardinals said that the proposed date for holding the second session would be from June 27 to 28, before the great feast day on June 29.
Pope Francis has largely eschewed legislative councils and the College of Cardinals as a whole to help him govern. Instead, he had them chosen A group of nine cardinals Who met every few months in the Vatican to advise him.
Before the conclave that elected Leo in May, the cardinals complained of Francis’s style of go-it-alone rule and called on the new pope to hold regular councils so that the cardinals could meet as a group and advise the pope on pressing issues facing the church.
Liu explained that he heard their complaints and was responding to them. He held his first church council the day after the conclusion of the Holy Year 2025, which in some ways signaled the beginning of his papacy after he completed Francis’s jubilee obligations.
Cardinal Stephen Breslin, the archbishop of Johannesburg, South Africa, said this week’s meeting also allowed the cardinals to get to know each other, since many of them rarely travel to Rome and hail from far-flung countries. During meetings leading up to the conclave, the cardinals complained that they did not know each other, which raised an issue for some about who they would vote for as the next pope.
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