Jan. 7, 2026, was, in some ways, the beginning of the Leo XIV pontificate.
Since the conclave that elected Pope Leo XIV on May 8 of last year, the new pope’s schedule has been largely dictated by the Jubilee Year activities laid out by his predecessor, Pope Francis. With Pope Leo closing the Holy Door on Jan. 6, marking the end of the Jubilee, a new era in his young pontificate has begun. Beginning on Jan. 7, Leo has much more freedom in his schedule—indeed, the Vatican confirmed on Dec. 20 that he would hit the ground running in this new era by bringing the world’s cardinals to Rome for a two-day meeting.
The closed-door meeting began Wednesday; in his opening address, Pope Leo said the meeting would include small-group discussions on four topics: the church’s mission as described in Pope Francis’ programmatic document “Evangelii Gaudium”; the reform of the Roman Curia; the synod; and liturgy. But because of time constraints, he asked the cardinals to choose only two of the topics to discuss “specifically.” According to Vatican News, a “clear majority” of the 170 cardinals participating voted to spend their time at the consistory discussing “Synod and synodality” and “Evangelization and mission in the Church in the light of Evangelii gaudium.”
[Read: Pope Leo XIV’s opening address at the Extraordinary Consistory of Cardinals]
The same day, Leo announced at his ordinary general audience that he would begin a new catechesis series on the documents of the Second Vatican Council. Acknowledging that the “generation of bishops, theologians and believers of Vatican II is no longer with us,” Leo said, “it will be important to get to know it again closely, and to do so not through ‘hearsay’ or interpretations that have been given, but by rereading its documents and reflecting on their content.”
The reception of Vatican II has been a topic of debate in the church for decades. While some have viewed the council as only the beginning of a process of reform that was meant to continue, others have seen it as a closed event, introducing certain reforms—most visibly, allowing the liturgy to be celebrated in the vernacular—that were not to exceed what was called for in the council’s documents. Pope Francis, an adherent of the former view, saw his papacy, and his signature Synod on Synodality reform process, as a continuation of the council’s implementation.
Historians often say that it takes a century for an ecumenical council like Vatican II to be “received” or implemented. It has now been 60 years since the council closed, meaning the next four decades will be key for how Vatican II’s impact on the church is cemented. Much of that time will likely fall within the papacy of Leo XIV.
This series of Wednesday audiences, then, will likely reveal the interpretative lens through which Leo views the council, and how he will continue its implementation.
The tradition of a weekly papal audience began with Pius XII in 1939 and was largely an opportunity for newlyweds to receive a blessing—a tradition that continues with a special section filled with brides and grooms at Wednesday audiences today. In 1963, John XXIII held his first “general audience,” as they are now called, to expound on themes from his encyclical “Pacem in Terris.”
The tradition took the shape it has today—short catechetical instructions on a particular topic, often delivered in a series of successive Wednesdays, followed by greetings in various languages to different pilgrim groups—under Paul VI. After the council closed in 1965, Paul VI spent five straight weeks discussing the council in his Wednesday addresses. He returned to the topic many times in his later audiences, and in 1969 rarely veered from the topic—only doing so to focus on certain liturgical feasts or seasons, his papal trips and, twice, the moon landing.
John Paul II famously used his Wednesday audiences for several years from 1979 to 1984 to develop his “Theology of the Body,” on marriage and human sexuality; he also preached a series of Wednesday catecheses on the Nicene Creed. Benedict XVI gave his Wednesday catechesis a focus on saints, including the Apostles, the Church Fathers and St. Paul. He also gave one on prayer.
Pope Francis delivered catechetical talks on the vices and virtues, Ignatian spiritual discernment and the value of old age.
Framing his catechesis series around Vatican II, Pope Leo quoted all of the popes since the council, emphasizing that its “spirit, this inner disposition” of “striving to seek the truth by way of ecumenism, interreligious dialogue and dialogue with people of good will…must characterize our spiritual life and the pastoral action of the church, because we have yet to achieve ecclesial reform more fully in a ministerial sense.”
He continued, “In the face of today’s challenges, we are called to continue to be vigilant interpreters of the signs of the times, joyful proclaimers of the Gospel, courageous witnesses of justice and peace.”
Leo is the second pope—Francis was the first—to have been ordained after Vatican II, and he has spent his entire priestly ministry in the postconciliar church. He was educated at the Catholic Theological Union in Chicago, where the council’s teachings were quickly put into action, and he supported Pope Francis’ continued implementation of the council through the synod.
Many of the core issues of Vatican II, including liturgical reform, interreligious dialogue, religious freedom, the social Gospel, evangelization and the relationship of the church to the modern world, remain key concerns of the church six decades later, even as new generations born after the council have risen to places of governance in the church.
Now, Pope Leo will be a magisterial interpreter of the council who will have the potential to influence its reception for generations.
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