Pope Francis’ biggest legacy regarding synodality is “as a style, an attitude that helps us to be Church,” Pope Leo XIV said Thursday in a meeting with synod leaders.

The Pope addressed the synod’s 16th ordinary council at its offices just outside the Vatican, where members are meeting June 26–27.

While time did not permit Leo to stay for the entire afternoon session, he briefly addressed the bishop and three non-bishop participants before making himself available to answer questions.

“Pope Francis has given a new impetus to the Synod of Bishops, referring, as he has repeatedly stated, to St. Paul VI,” the current pontiff said. “And the legacy he has left us seems to me to be above all this: that synodality is a style, an attitude that helps us to be Church, promoting authentic experiences of participation and communion.”

Pope Leo added that Francis promoted this concept in the various synodal assemblies that took place during his pontificate, “especially those on the family, and then he has made it flow into the latest path, dedicated precisely to synodality.”

The 2014 and 2015 synods on the family were marked by controversy over proposals to allow divorced Catholics who remarry without an annulment to receive Communion. Pope Francis later made it possible for some people in such irregular unions to receive Communion after a process of discernment with a priest.

In his speech on Thursday, Pope Leo encouraged the Synod of Bishops, which he said “naturally retains its institutional physiognomy,” to gather the fruits that have matured during Francis’ pontificate “and to make a forward-looking reflection.”

The ordinary council of the General Secretariat of the Synod is “responsible for the preparation and realization of the Ordinary General Assembly” of the Synod of Bishops.

The members of the 16th ordinary council are all bishops, except for two women, who were appointed by Pope Francis in December 2024: consecrated woman María Lía Zervino, former president of the World Union of Catholic Women’s Organizations, and Sister Simona Brambilla, MC, prefect of the Dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life.

Pope Francis’ other appointees to the council are Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich, SJ, the archbishop of Luxembourg and relator general of the Synod on Synodality, and Cardinal Roberto Repole, archbishop of Turin, Italy.

The rest of the 17 members were elected to the council last October, including Bishop Daniel E. Flores of Brownsville, Texas. The pope is considered the council’s chairman.

Council meetings are also attended by the synod secretariat’s permanent leaders, secretary general Cardinal Mario Grech and undersecretaries Bishop Luis Marín de San Martín, OSA, and Sister Nathalie Becquart.

Introducing the gathering June 26, Grech said: “I am convinced that it is the task of the General Secretariat of the Synod to accompany the synodal process with initiatives that, without overlapping with the protagonism of the local Churches and their groupings, help to develop the synodal and missionary dimension of the Church.”

“Let us invoke the Holy Spirit to guide us and enlighten us in discerning the paths that he suggests to the Church, in fidelity to the risen Lord,” the cardinal said. “We have all participated in the synodal process. Indeed, you are here because the assembly has recognized you as credible interpreters of synodality.”