The council of cardinals advising the Pope on Church governance have discussed the way bishops are chosen for dioceses around the world.
Vatican spokesman Fr Federico Lombardi, SJ, said the cardinals’ council reflected on what criteria is currently used to select prelates “in the light of their pastoral identity and mission”.
The cardinals have also done an office by office review of the Vatican’s bureaucracy.
This is in the hope of creating a new general constitution outlining a curial organisational structure.