Dear brother Cardinals,

I welcome you and thank you most sincerely for having once again accepted my invitation.  Your presence demonstrates the concern for the whole Church that we all share in our service to the People of God and to the mission entrusted to us by the Lord.

At the Consistory last January, I expressed a simple wish: that these meetings might help us to learn ever more to “work together in the service of the Church” and to continue “a dialogue that assists me in serving the mission of the whole Church.” These were not merely introductory words. I continue to believe that this is one of the most important responsibilities entrusted to the College of Cardinals. We too, like the whole Church, learn as we walk forward. Communion is never a result that is achieved once and for all: it remains a daily conversion, which takes shape in prayer, and through concrete actions, relationships of trust, and a willingness to listen to one another.

In recent months, I have had the opportunity to recall on several occasions that we are called to be builders of Christ’s communion, a communion that takes shape in a synodal Church in which everyone cooperates in the same mission, each according to their own charism and ministry.

As I said to the Roman Curia, this communion “is built not so much through words and documents as through concrete gestures and attitudes that ought to appear in our daily lives, including in our work” (Address to the Roman Curia for the Exchange of Christmas Greetings, 22 December 2025). We are not guardians of particular interests, but “disciples and witnesses of the Kingdom of God, called in Christ to be leaven of universal fraternity” (ibid.).

For this reason, I desired that our work together here focus on four themes that are deeply interconnected.

First of all, we are invited to contemplate the world in which the Church is called to proclaim the Gospel. Before asking ourselves what to do, we must pause to consider reality, looking at it through the eyes of faith and allowing ourselves to be challenged by listening to our brothers and sisters. As I recalled a few weeks ago: “Jesus travels the streets, crosses the squares and visits our neighborhoods, dwelling in the settings of our daily lives. He is a God who is close to us, who walks with his people, the Lord of history” (Homily in “Plaza de Cibeles,” Madrid, 7 June 2026). Today, the Lord continues to go before us in history, and the Church is called first and foremost to recognize his presence.

Next, we shall reflect together on the culture of power and the civilization of love. Many of you come from lands marked by war, violence, and social or religious polarization. Yet none of us are immune to the many forms of conflict, oppression, and division that afflict our societies today. For this reason, the discernment that we are called to undertake concerns us all and challenges the Church’s mission in every context. The Encyclical Magnifica Humanitas offers us some valuable insights for understanding our times. I am particularly keen to hear how these pages resonate within your particular Churches, what questions they raise, what perspectives they open up, and what steps they suggest. An encyclical, in fact, continues its journey when it is received, interpreted, and embodied in the concrete life of the Churches.

The third session will then explore Magnifica Humanitas in greater depth, examining the contribution that the Church can make to building up the common good. We live in an age in which the temptation towards fragmentation is growing and particular interests all too easily prevail. The Church’s social teaching reminds us that the common good does not arise spontaneously, but requires shared responsibility. For the Church, this takes on a very specific form: a synodal style at the service of the mission of the Kingdom. The Encyclical Magnifica Humanitas recalls this in paragraph 86, adding that this requires attention to the way in which decisions are made and responsibilities exercised, through transparency, evaluation, and shared responsibility.

Finally, we will devote a session to the process of implementing the Synod. This final session will not introduce a new theme, but bring together and connect what we have shared in the previous sessions. In the face of the wounds of the world, the building up of the common good, and the mission of the Church, synodality points to a way forward: listening, discerning, and taking responsibility together for the choices that the Lord entrusts to us. Synodality is not, first and foremost, a set of procedures; as I have said on several occasions, synodality is an attitude, an openness, a willingness to understand. At times it has been interpreted as a diminishment of authority. In reality, it helps us to understand more deeply the meaning of authority itself, which exists to safeguard communion, to foster the participation of all, and to guide the Church’s common journey.

These four sessions find their unity in the missionary perspective, which we shared at the last Consistory and which I referred to in my letter this past April. We are not here, first and foremost, to reflect on the internal life of the Church.

All the themes we will address — our view of the world, peace, the common good, and synodality — converge on a single question: how can we help our Churches today to proclaim the Gospel with greater fidelity, freedom, and credibility? Mission is not merely one of the Church’s many tasks. It is her very reason for existing and thus, it also becomes the criterion that guides our discernment. When we learn to listen to one another, to share responsibilities, and to recognize the action of the Spirit in the various Churches, we are not merely improving the way we work: we are becoming a Church that is better able to engage with the men and women of our time and to bear witness to them of the joy of the Gospel.

For this reason, I wish to ask you for your help. The ministry which the Lord has entrusted to me cannot be carried out alone. It requires your experience, your pastoral wisdom, and your knowledge of the Churches and of the peoples entrusted to you. I am counting on you to help me discern what the Spirit is saying to the Church today. I need your support: strong, explicit, and public. I need to feel sustained by you, as by brothers.

I therefore ask you to accompany me not only during these days of work, but also in the daily service to the communion of the universal Church. Help me to listen to what is emerging in the Churches, to recognize the signs of hope that often grow in silence, but also to not ignore the struggles, misunderstandings, and resistance that can slow down our journey. I need your freedom, your frankness, and your loyalty. Sincere advice is always an act of communion.

I also ask you to uphold, each within your own Church and in your own ministry, this style of ecclesial discernment. I know that it requires patience and sometimes raises questions. Nevertheless, I am convinced that the Lord is teaching us a more evangelical way of living out together the responsibility he has entrusted to us. The credibility of our witness and the fruitfulness of our mission depend on this.

I therefore wish to encourage you to engage wholeheartedly in the group work we are undertaking. I am well aware that, for many of us, this is not the usual way of conducting a Consistory. Yet this too is part of the journey along which the Lord is leading us. Naturally, there will still be space for personal contributions and, as always, everyone is free to send me their observations or confidential reflections. But I ask you to enter into this ecclesial exercise with trust. We too learn synodality by practicing it; we learn together to grow in communion. I thank you in advance for your willingness, for your interior freedom, and for your love for the Church.

Let us entrust these days to the Holy Spirit, that he may make us docile to his voice and grant us the grace to seek together what best serves the Gospel and the good of the People of God.

Thank you.