In July 2020, conservative author George Weigel's book "The Next Pope: The Office of Peter and a Church in Mission" was sent to all 222 cardinals in the Catholic Church with an accompanying letter from Cardinal Dolan stating: "I am grateful to Ignatius Press for making this important reflection on the future of the Church available to the College of Cardinals." Some cardinals saw this as a violation of the 1996 apostolic constitution "Universi Dominici gregis" in which Pope John Paul II "forbid(s) anyone, even if he is a Cardinal, during the Pope's lifetime and without having consulted him, to make plans concerning the election of his successor." Dolan had earlier been critical of the way Pope Francis had organized the 2015 Synod on the Family.