Pope Leo XIV closed the Holy Wear on Wednesday with his first meeting with the world’s cardinals at a two-day extraordinary consistory focused on aspects of Church teaching that many traditional Catholics oppose.

The Chicago-born pope opened the gathering in Rome by calling for unity around Vatican II, the landmark 1960s council that modernized the Catholic Church and effectively ended broad use of the Traditional Latin Mass. (RELATED: Federal Court Backs Christians In One Of Nation’s Most Secular States)

“Dear brothers and sisters, we begin today a new series of catecheses dedicated to the Second Vatican Council and to reflecting on its documents,” Leo said in his morning general audience. “We see that the documents have lost none of their relevance and are pertinent to the demands and challenges of today. Closely studying the Council documents will help us to be attentive interpreters of the signs of the times and to proclaim the Gospel to all.”

Leo also announced he would devote his weekly catechesis to a close rereading of key Vatican II documents for the foreseeable future, according to the Associated Press.

We are beginning a new catechesis series dedicated to the Second Vatican Council and to a fresh reading of its Documents. The Council’s Magisterium remains even today the North Star guiding the Church’s journey. #GeneralAudience https://t.co/PIm9DbQ3oI

— Pope Leo XIV (@Pontifex) January 7, 2026

Leo emphasized that Vatican II should not be understood through unapproved interpretations or “hearsay,” adding that the council “still constitutes the guiding star of the Church’s journey today,” according to the Catholic News Agency.

A major, and still disputed, aspect of Vatican II was its shift away from the TLM and toward vernacular liturgy, allowing parishioners to more actively participate in Mass.

Although it has been 60 years since Vatican II, many traditional Catholics — a significant contingent among young American conservatives — reject aspects or even the entirety of the council. They argue for a return to the TLM and the norms of Pope Benedict XVI, which they say fostered a stronger sense of unity within the Church.

“It is precisely the TLM that has allowed the Church not only to live but to live well for centuries, and the sacred nourished by it and from it,” Archbishop Georg Gänswein said, according to LifeSiteNews. “It can’t be that it was valid and valuable yesterday and then no longer valid tomorrow. So this is an unnatural situation.”

Pope Francis (R), sitting next to of Prefect the Papal household, Georg Gaenswein, ponders during an audience with students and teachers of Roma’s LUMSA Catholic University, on November 14, 2019 at Paul-VI hall in the Vatican. (Photo by ANDREAS SOLARO/AFP via Getty Images)

Leo, who ascended to the papacy last year, appears more traditional than his predecessor, Pope Francis — demonstrated in part by his decision to convene all the cardinals for the extraordinary consistory rather than relying on a select few for consultation, according to the AP.

With the Church’s Holy Year of Jubilee now concluded, Leo has made the consistory the unofficial start of his pontificate and a launching point for his agenda.

However, the gathering’s topics appear primarily focused on the contributions of Francis, who greatly restricted the TLM. Discussion items included two of Francis’s key reform documents and his call for the Church to be more “synodal,” or responsive to the needs of parishioners, according to the AP.

Bishop Robert Barron of Winona-Rochester criticized the focus on synodality in a post on X Tuesday, tying it to what he sees as the lingering problems of Vatican II.

“It was precisely the perpetuation of the spirit of Vatican II that led to so much vacillation and drift in the years when I was coming of age,” Barron wrote, adding that as long as the Church “sits in council,” it remains “in suspense, unsure of itself.”

I understand that one of the topics under consideration at the Consistory of Cardinals is synodality. I’m speaking as a bishop who was an elected delegate to both rounds of the Synod and Synodality in Rome and who has just presided over a local synod in my own diocese. Synods are…

— Bishop Robert Barron (@BishopBarron) January 6, 2026

Barron urged that if synodality must continue, it should focus on practical matters — worship, evangelization, and serving the poor — rather than becoming “a defining and permanent feature of the Church’s life.”

The final agenda item concerns the TLM, though details remain unclear. Leo also held a private audience Wednesday with Cardinal Joseph Zen, a fierce conservative whom Francis had refused to meet, according to the AP.

“Critics of Francis have held out hope that Leo XIV will relax restrictions on the Latin Mass, but given his emphasis on church unity and Vatican II, Leo XIV might wait and see before making changes,” Matthew Schmalz, a professor of religious studies at the College of the Holy Cross, told the AP.