VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Pope Francis will create his first cardinals during a consistory Feb. 22, the feast of the Chair of St. Peter.

The pope also is expected to use the occasion “to have a meeting with the cardinals for consultations” immediately before the ceremony, as retired Pope Benedict XVI did in the run-up to his consistories, said Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, Vatican spokesman. No specific dates were given for that meeting.

The names of the new cardinals usually are announced a little more than a month before the consistory itself.

Father Lombardi told reporters Oct. 31 that also in mid-February, the pope will have members of the governing council of the Synod of Bishops meet in preparation for the extraordinary session on the family in October, 2014 and to have his Council of Cardinals, the group of eight advisers, hold what will be their third gathering.

The spokesman said that the pope wanted to hold a consistory for the creation of new cardinals during the same time period as the cardinals’ other meetings “to facilitate all these appointments.”

The group of eight cardinals will probably meet Feb. 17 and 18, Father Lombardi said, to continue their work on helping the pope reform the Roman Curia. The group met Oct. 1-3 and scheduled its second meeting at the Vatican for early December.

The synod council will meet Feb. 24-25, Father Lombardi said, to discuss the extraordinary synod the pope convoked for Oct. 5-19, 2014, to discuss the “pastoral challenges of the family in the context of evangelization.”

The annual meeting of the Council of Cardinals for the Study of the Organizational and Economic Problems of the Holy See also will be held in February, as it is every year.

When the Feb. 22 consistory date arrives, Pope Francis could create at least 14 new cardinals