VATICAN CITY (LifeSiteNews) — The content of four speeches delivered – or circulated – behind closed doors at this month’s extraordinary consistory were published by two Italian media outlets today.
On Tuesday the Italian newspaper Il Giornale, followed by the blog Messainlatino, published excerpts and later the full texts of the speeches delivered by cardinals during the extraordinary consistory held in the Vatican’s New Synod Hall on January 7-8, 2026.
The texts contain Cardinal Arthur Roche’s defense of Traditionis Custodes, the document issued by Pope Francis that reversed Pope Benedict XVI’s generous provisions in Summorum Pontificum for the celebration of the Traditional Latin Mass. Roche, prefect of the Dicastery for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, did not present this document at the consistory; it was handed out to the participants instead.
“The reform of the Liturgy wanted by the Second Vatican Council is not only in full syntony with the true meaning of Tradition, but constitutes a singular way of putting itself at the service of the Tradition,” he wrote in his speech.
Roche wrote that in a “dynamic vision, maintaining solid tradition and opening the way to legitimate progress cannot be understood as two separable actions: without a legitimate progress the tradition would be reduced to a collection of dead things not always all healthy,” while warning that progress without tradition risks becoming “a pathological search for novelty.”
READ: Cardinal Zen condemns Pope Francis’ synodality, ‘manipulation’ of synodal process at consistory
He acknowledged deficiencies in liturgical formation, especially in seminaries, but strongly defended the restrictions placed on the celebration of the pre-1970 Roman Missal.
Roche further stated that “the use of the liturgical books that the Council sought to reform was, from St. John Paul II to Francis, a concession that in no way envisaged their promotion.”
He added that Pope Francis, while permitting limited use of the 1962 Missale Romanum, “pointed the way to unity in the use of the liturgical books promulgated by the holy Popes Paul VI and John Paul II.” He defined these books “the sole expression of the lex orandi of the Roman Rite.”
Vatican sources consider it likely that the liturgical question, and Roche’s position in particular, will be formally addressed at the future extraordinary consistory expected on June 27-28, 2026.
Among the other leaked documents is a written text prepared by Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández regarding Evangelii Gaudium. According to the published material, Fernández stated that Pope Francis reminded us that “not all the truths of the doctrine of the Church have the same importance,” and that “the announcement [of the Gospel] is not concerned with an obsessive proclamation of all the doctrines and norms of the Church, however necessary and precious they be, but of the core of the Gospel.”
Fernández’s speech was read aloud during the consistory sessions and formed part of the two themes actually discussed in the aula. The second speech formally presented was devoted to synodality and delivered by Cardinal Mario Grech, secretary general of the Synod of Bishops.
In his intervention, Grech affirmed that “it always belongs to the Bishop of Rome to convene, accompany, conclude and – if necessary – suspend the synodal process. In no way do the Synod of Bishops and the exercise of synodality limit the exercise of the Pope’s Primacy.” Grech also said that “it is possible to envisage an exercise of synodality at multiple levels, with differentiated involvement of subjects depending on the issues to be addressed.”
Finally, the written speech of Cardinal Fabio Baggio, like that of Cardinal Roche, remained on the table and was not delivered orally. Baggio’s intervention focused on the relationship between the Holy See and the local churches in view of a deeper understanding of Praedicate Evangelium.
READ: Pope Leo XIV announces follow-up consistory in June, pledges annual meetings of the cardinals
According to journalist Nico Spuntoni, it is noteworthy that Pope Leo XIV entrusted Baggio – currently secretary of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development – with reporting on the curial reform initiated by Pope Francis. Spuntoni notes that this choice has drawn attention because Cardinal Baggio is highly regarded by Pope Leo.
Baggio wrote that the reform desired by Pope Francis gave “the universal Church a structure of service that would respond more adequately and effectively to the missionary challenges of our time, a renewed exercise of that ‘aggiornamento’ [update] begun by the Second Vatican Council.”
In the same document, Cardinal Baggio stated that Praedicate Evangelium does not only affirm that the Curia is at the service of the Pope, but that it “is also at the service of the Bishops, both individually and collectively, in their Episcopal Conferences and their regional and continental groupings.” The reform, he explains, adopts “as a criterion the sound decentralization described in Evangelii Gaudium.”
The extraordinary consistory was originally structured around four discussion topics distributed across 20 working tables. However, due to time constraints raised during the opening session, the cardinals were asked to choose by vote only two themes for oral discussion. As a result, only Evangelii Gaudium and synodality were addressed in the final sessions, while the speeches on Praedicate Evangelium and the liturgy were not formally presented.
This article has been updated.