A papal declaration of moving forward sparked controversy this week, whilst details of the upcoming consistory and a Peruvian papal voyage have also been confirmed.

It seems that not even the interruptions to his return flight from Tenerife to Rome last Friday slowed Leo down. He was swiftly back into his regular full schedule of meetings and appointments, delighting Romans by his return to the papal apartments and his weekly Angelus address.

One such audience was with Peru’s President José María Balcázar on Thursday, after which the president confirmed that Leo will visit Peru in the first half of November. Though no official Vatican confirmation has yet arrived, it is believed that the trip would also include stops in Argentina, as a way of finally granting the nation the papal trip which never took place under Pope Francis.

A return to Rome meant also the customary dies non spent by Leo at Castel Gandolfo on Tuesday, following which he rewarded journalists by taking more questions than normal – perhaps linked to the fact they were denied the in-flight press conference after the Spanish voyage.

Here it was that the Pope broke a four-month silence on the topic of the Society of St Pius X. Responding to the press, Leo revealed he is considering “making another appeal and saying ‘don’t do this, let’s try to live the communion of the Church.’”

He lamented the “division among Christians”, but also pointed to the chief point of contention between Rome and the Society: “However, they refuse to accept some fundamental elements of the Church, starting with several points of the Second Vatican Council. If they make that choice, I am sorry. But we must move forward.”

For many this is a welcome step that Leo has personally identified the main issue, especially after many have argued that access to the traditional Mass is the main element behind the SSPX’s actions. But it now raises the question – which many have asked since Tuesday – as to what exactly are the elements of new doctrine Vatican II supposedly proposed which the SSPX reject.

Leo’s “we must move forward” was but a brief remark at the end of an impromptu reply to a journalist. Nevertheless, it has rapidly become for many tradition-loving Catholics an encapsulation of the liturgical and doctrinal chaos of recent decades in a simple slogan and has not won him fresh popularity.

It has also highlighted the Holy See’s apparent twofold manner of operating: firmly responding to the SSPX who question elements of a pastoral council, whilst being liberally permissive to German bishops who directly contradict aspects of the Faith. As the countdown to 1 July is now in its final days, Leo’s “appeal” may emerge in coming days after his Friday meeting with Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernández, who has been the Vatican’s point man with the SSPX since February.

Immediately preceding the episcopal consecrations will be the second consistory of the pontificate. Described originally as a second part of January’s event, it now seems to have taken on its own character and identity, in no small part due to the schedule focused on completely different elements. Vatican Dispatch readers will already be somewhat familiar with the programme’s inclusion of current ecclesial questions, Magnifica Humanitas and synodality.

On Wednesday, Messa in Latino revealed the information which has been sent to the College of Cardinals for the consistory, which shows it to be in many ways a re-run of January’s organisational style. Just two hours are laid out for free interventions, and only the cardinal electors who do not work in the Curia will present the results of their small table groups before the entire assembly.

Heavy use of technology is also employed, raising genuine questions about the ready inclusion of all the cardinals since even at January’s consistory some members were left unprepared due to information being sent to emails they rarely use, or were not tech-savvy enough to handle in the required manner.

The liturgy was already removed from the agenda, but now also the planned discussion of the Just War doctrine has been similarly, quietly, removed.

No further information has been given by the Vatican on these points, which is very much in line with the media policy which will be enforced next week as cardinals have been ordered to observe strict secrecy regarding the consistory discussions.

While enforcing near-consistory-like silence and the synod-style round tables may be part of “moving forward”, it is unlikely to win support from the respected members of the College who have already lamented the discussion table format. “At the end there are no results for the others and therefore everybody would prefer the plenary discussion,” Cardinal Gerhard Müller told me previously about the round-table consistory format.

Veteran Vaticanists have likewise expressed concerns that the strict secrecy observed in January – in contrast to the ready information of previous consistories – risked the event being hijacked. With even more secrecy now formally implemented, it does not bode well for the supposedly synodal-style open format of the discussions.

This week also saw the death of 95-year-old Cardinal Camillo Ruini, the former vicar of the Diocese of Rome and a longtime collaborator of Pope St John Paul II. Ruini held positions in the Curia under John Paul, Benedict and Francis, granting him a rare opportunity when writing his testament to assess the various pontificates.

Though he praised Francis for his “extraordinary zeal for evangelisation”, Ruini nevertheless expressed his concerns over the past pontificate, writing that: “I struggle to understand certain directions that seem to me to reopen wounds that were barely healed after the Council.”

The late cardinal’s testament, published again by Messa in Latino, is noteworthy in that it rejects the narrative often pushed since 2013 of unquestioning support for Francis among the cardinals. As is often the way, the reality behind closed doors was very different to the officially approved narrative.

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Michael Haynes is an English journalist in the Holy See Press Corps. He serves as Vatican Correspondent and Analyst for Pelican+ and the Catholic Herald, while readers can follow him at Per Mariam and on X/Twitter @MLJHaynes. 

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