Vatican City – Canon 353 of the Code of Canon Law establishes that the cardinals “offer principal assistance, in a collegial manner, to the Supreme Pastor of the Church in Consistories, which may be ordinary or extraordinary.” The ordinary consistories address recurring or solemn matters; the extraordinary ones, instead, are convened to discuss “particularly grave issues” or “peculiar needs of the Church.”It is precisely this latter type that characterises the convocation Pope Leo XIV intends to hold at the beginning of next year. In a confidential communication sent on 6 November by the Secretariat of State to the members of the Sacred College, it states that “the Holy Father Leo XIV intends to convene an Extraordinary Consistory for 7–8 January 2026.” The note, signed with the customary formula of reverence, merely adds that the Dean of the College of Cardinalswill, in due course, send the official details.Nothing has yet been revealed regarding the theme of the meeting, but the announcement alone is enough to arouse expectation and questions. After years in which the governance of the Church was exercised through restricted circles and parallel bodies — such as the Council of Nine Cardinals instituted by Pope Francis and nicknamed in the Vatican “the King’s Council” — Leo XIV now seems intent on restoring to the College of Cardinals its original role: to advise the Pope in a collegial and universal manner.On 21 April 2025, the Council was dissolved, and the female theologians once invited to speak on the ordination of women and other trivialities returned home. Before Francis, Benedict XVI preferred to replace such bodies with informal meetings on the eve of the creation of new cardinals, while Saint John Paul II convened six extraordinary consistories: three concerning curial reform and Vatican finances, and three dedicated to doctrinal and pastoral themes of broad scope — from the defence of life to the preparation for the Jubilee of 2000, and finally the reflection on the Church’s mission in the new millennium in light of Novo Millennio Ineunte (2001).The first extraordinary consistory of Francis dates back to 20–21 February 2014, when the cardinals gathered to discuss the family, in preparation for the two Synods of 2014 and 2015. On 29–30 August 2022, despite the Holy See Press Office referring to a “meeting of cardinals,” it was, in fact, an extraordinary consistory convened to “inform the cardinals” about the new apostolic constitution Praedicate Evangelium concerning the reform of the Roman Curia. On that occasion, several cardinals complained of “having been summoned only after the document had already been published,” a text that restructured the entire Curia.A sign of method, even before a matter of content.This gesture by Leo XIV carries a significance that goes beyond the subject that will be discussed. It is the very form of the Consistory that represents a return to ecclesial collegiality, after a long period during which many cardinals lamented having been excluded from decision-making processes.It is no coincidence that, during the general congregations before the Conclave, several cardinals had expressed the desire for a Pope capable of listening and of involving the entire cardinalate. Leo XIV seems intent on responding to that expectation, choosing to summon all, not merely a small group of trusted counsellors or “theologians.” While awaiting the theme, one has the impression that this Extraordinary Consistory could mark a turning point — not so much for what will be said, but for what it represents. A Church that returns to deliberate together, in the presence of its Shepherd, is already a Church that breathes again with full lungs.f.C.F.Silere non possum