As the temperature in Rome ticks up and work in the Vatican winds down for the summer, one key desk has been sitting empty for two months: that of the prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops. Its former occupant has taken a new position as head of the Roman Catholic Church.
Whom Pope Leo XIV will choose as his replacement will have a major impact on how the leadership of the church begins to be reshaped under this new pontificate. The man—or woman, though that is unlikely—chosen will also be responsible for implementing any reforms to the process for selecting bishops that Leo may choose to make.
Leo’s time running the Dicastery for Bishops and his early papacy already give some clues as to what reforms he may have in mind.
More involvement of lay people
At the time of his appointment as prefect in 2023, then-Cardinal Robert Prevost gave an interview to Catholic News Service outlining one change he would like to see in the bishop selection process: greater involvement of lay people.
“We had an interesting reflection among the members of the dicastery on this issue,” he told Cindy Wooden of CNS. “I believe that little by little we need to open up more, to listen a little more to the religious (and) the laity,” he added.
In the current top-secret process of appointing Catholic bishops, the pope’s ambassadors (nuncios), who are tasked with compiling a list of candidates and gathering information on them, are asked to consult with lay people who know the candidates, but it is not a requirement.
Some reforms to the process were made under Pope Francis. Most notably, the confidential questionnaire that the nuncio distributed to people for feedback on a candidate was updated for the first time since 1978. (The 1978 survey was published in full in America magazine in 1984, and parts of the revised edition were shared in a 2021 episode of America’s “Inside the Vatican” podcast.) The key change in Francis’ version was the inclusion of a question about whether the candidate had been involved in any scandals, including with women or minors.
In 2022, Francis appointed three women to the Dicastery for Bishops: two religious sisters and one lay woman. Cardinal Prevost worked with them both when he was a member of the congregation and then as prefect; two have said publicly that he worked well with them. (The third does not give interviews.)
In early 2024, between the two Roman sessions of the Synod on Synodality, Cardinal Prevost was appointed to two different synod study groups concerning bishops: Group 6 on “The revision, from a synodal and missionary perspective, of documents governing relations between bishops, consecrated life, Church aggregations” and Group 7 on “Some aspects of the figure and ministry of the bishop (particularly: criteria for the selection of candidates for the episcopate, judicial function of the bishop, nature and conduct of ad limina Apostolorum visits) in a missionary synodal perspective.”
The update provided by Group 7 at the beginning of the 2024 synod assembly specifically called for changes to the bishop selection process that would make it more transparent, more in touch with the local church and would involve more input from lay people.
A commission focused on implementing synodality in canon law was also formed after the 2023 session of the synod; it is expected to present its recommendations to the pope this fall. The changes to canon law will likely include a number of adjustments to bishops’ governing authority, allowing for greater sharing of responsibility with lay people. It will be up to Pope Leo, who holds a doctorate in canon law, to decide whether and how to implement these recommendations.
Bishops appointed under Prevost and Leo
Of course, the outcome of any such reforms will be difficult to measure, with their only visible result being who becomes a bishop or which bishops are appointed to which positions under Pope Leo. Although in the almost two months since his election, Leo has already appointed more than 40 bishops—some who were already bishops but now take new positions, and others who are being made bishops for the first time—many of these would already have been approved by Pope Francis, as it takes some time for bishops to accept the position and for the decision to be announced.
It seems likely, though, that Pope Leo will continue in the Francis model of appointing bishops who have strong relationships with the people in their respective dioceses—who Francis often described as pastors “with the smell of the sheep.” One source who worked with Cardinal Prevost at the second session of the synod, speaking on the condition of anonymity because the synod’s proceedings were confidential, recalls him pointing out that half of the world’s bishops have no people in their diocese; rather, they are nuncios or Vatican officials who are given titular dioceses. Cardinal Prevost argued at the synod, the source said, that nuncios do not need to be made bishops in order to hold their positions.
While many observers will attempt to categorize Pope Leo’s appointments according to their church-political leanings, Pope Leo has frequently presented unity as an essential priority for the Catholic Church today. Thus, it seems likely he will not appoint anyone with particularly strong ideologies on one or another side of church politics. That does not, however, mean he will expect bishops to be completely apolitical: As America’s Gerard O’Connell confirmed, then-Cardinal Prevost was involved in sending a letter, signed by Pope Francis, to U.S. bishops, urging them to continue their advocacy for immigrants in the face of the Trump administration’s mass deportation policy, and correcting (without naming) U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance’s understanding of St. Augustine’s ordo amoris.
Increasing collegiality among bishops
Pope Leo has already laid out his expectation that bishops will work together more. This was a desire also expressed by many of the bishops at the Synod on Synodality: Bishops reported feeling overworked, burnt out and lonely, and they wanted a stronger feeling of mutual support among their ranks.
In his first Mass with the cardinals who elected him, Pope Leo expressed the same desire. Referring to the role of St. Peter as bishop of Rome, he said: “You have called me to carry that cross and to be blessed with that mission. And I know I can rely on each and every one of you to walk with me as we continue as a church, as a community of friends of Jesus, as believers, to announce the good news, to announce the Gospel.”
Immediately after the Mass, he and the cardinals returned to the Vatican’s old synod hall where their pre-conclave meetings had taken place. There, Leo delivered a brief address, again expressing his desire to work together with the cardinals and to listen to them, before opening the floor to their comments for two hours.
