Interview: Cardinal Müller on Leo XIV’s first consistory

To escape the endless circling of synodality, Cardinal Müller commented that “we have to do what is our mission.”

(Pelican+) — Grateful for the return of consistories as the proper forum for cardinals to engage with the Pope, but warning about issues remaining over synodality – Cardinal Gerhard Müller has shared his thoughts about the recent Extraordinary Consistory with this correspondent for Pelican+.

Müller, the prefect emeritus of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, took part in Pope Leo XIV’s first Extraordinary Consistory at the start of January – marking the first such meeting since 2014.

He observed that having no consistory for such a long time was “an exception” and somewhat even contrary to the nature of the College of Cardinals, whose members must advise and dialogue with the Pope. Consistories provide the authentic setting for true “synodal” style collaboration between the cardinals and the Pope, said Müller, so the regular consistories under Leo will be “a return to normality of the synodal work of the Pope.”

But the organization of the January meeting was not without concern for a number of cardinals, given the small table discussion format which severely limited the ability of cardinals to address the entire assembly. This style is very much carried over from the Synod on Synodality of recent years, having also been used at the 2022 meeting of cardinals at which Pope Francis briefed them on his reforms to the Roman Curia.

“I think this was an experiment promoted by those who organized it with more illogical ideas,” suggested Müller. While he noted that in the small groups cardinals could “speak openly,” he added that “at the end there no result for the others and therefore everybody would prefer the plenary discussion.”

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The rest of this report conducted exclusively for Pelican+, is found at this link. Interested readers looking to follow this correspondent’s Vatican reporting for Pelican Media can do so here with the discount code “HAYNES.”