Is Leo reforming Spanish episcopal appointments?

According to some, the new pope has paused appointments while he retools the process for selecting candidates

Pope Leo XIV. Credit: Vatican media.

During Francis' pontificate, episcopal appointments became increasingly complicated in many parts of the world.

One reason was the growing number of priests who declined episcopal appointments, contributing to delays and resulting in many bishops — especially metropolitans — serving well past retirement age.

However, there were other factors at play as well.

In some countries, individual bishops and informal advisors close to the pope seemed to wield more influence in episcopal appointments than the local nuncio or even, on occasion, the Dicastery of Bishops, most recently led by Cardinal Robert Prevost. This dynamic became increasingly pronounced in the last few years of the Francis pontificate.

Spain became a prime example of this phenomenon, ultimately leading to the creation of an informal “episcopal commission” composed by a group of Spanish cardinals and bishops with an effective veto power over the episcopal shortlists prepared by the nuncio.

But Pope Leo XIV seems poised to change this dynamic.

Sources in both Rome and Spain have told The Pillar that Leo is working to restore the traditional process, in which the nuncio and the Dicastery for Bishops play the primary role in vetting and recommending episcopal candidates.

In fact, according to sources close to the Spanish bishops’ conference, Pope Leo has temporarily halted at least two episcopal appointments in Spain which had allegedly been coordinated and endorsed by Cardinal Juan José Omella of Barcelona.

While the pope might end up appointing bishops from the shortlists prepared while Pope Francis was in office, local insider news publication Religión Confidencial has said that the pope’s wish is to pause episcopal appointments until a new nuncio is appointed.

The pope’s main goal in Spain seems to be to return episcopal appointments to institutional normalcy. This means two main things: The end of the appointments commission and the appointment of a new nuncio.

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In recent years, the shortlists of recommended bishop candidates proposed by then-Spain’s apostolic nuncio, Archbishop Bernardito Auza, were increasingly ignored in Rome. The Vatican took an unusual step in 2021 by unofficially establishing a commission of bishops charged with helping the nuncio to develop episcopal shortlists.

Auza is considered theologically conservative and is believed to have influenced some major appointments in Spain, keeping the general orientation of the Spanish episcopate on the more conservative side.

For example, while most Spanish bishops have avoided the appearance of any overt disagreement with Pope Francis, the reception of Fiducia supplicans was notably cool across the country, with a few bishops even venturing to speak openly against the document.

Rome’s commission of Spanish bishops, most of them close to Francis, was reportedly brought about after several Auza shortlists and nominations for the different dioceses, especially the Archdiocese of Madrid, were rejected in Rome.

According to local media, this commission was composed of Cardinal Juan José Omella of Barcelona; Cardinal Carlos Osoro, then-Archbishop Madrid; Cardinal Ricardo Blásquez, then-Archbishop of Valladolid; Archbishop Vicente Jiménez Zamora, then-Archbishop of Zaragoza; and Bishop Luis Ángel de las Heras of the Diocese of León.

After Cardinal José Cobo was appointed as the Archbishop of Madrid in 2023, Auza’s influence dropped sharply, and episcopal appointments in Spain came to be seen as increasingly theologically progressive.

The appointment of Cobo himself is believed to have come at the suggestion of Fr. Elías Royón, SJ, a friend of Francis since their time in formation together with the Society of Jesus back in the early ‘70s.

Cobo experienced a meteoric rise, from a relatively unknown parish priest to cardinal in just six years.

His predecessor, Cardinal Carlos Osoro, was not considered a progressive bishop, although observers say he made a number of senior appointments within the Madrid archdiocese intended to be in line with Pope Francis, including personal friends of the then-pope.

Another bishop that has quickly risen in Spain is Bishop José Antonio Satué, who has led the Diocese of Teruel y Albarracín since 2021.

Before that, Satué was a priest in the Diocese of Huesca, where he served as vicar general between 2004-2009 and judicial vicar between 2004-2015. He then served in the Congregation for Bishops from 2015 until his appointment to Teruel.

Although he is leading one of the smallest dioceses in Spain, Satué’s influence has been significant. A priest from Huesca told The Pillar that Satué traveled monthly, or even biweekly, to Rome to meet with Pope Francis in 2023 and 2024.

Observers have suggested that Satué’s rise has largely been due to his having been championed by Cardinal Juan José Omella, Archbishop of Barcelona.

However, the informal commission of advisor bishops fell into abeyance as many of its members retired, with the three Spanish bishop-members of the Dicastery of Bishops — Cardinal Omella, Cardinal Cobo of Madrid, and Bishop José Antonio Satué of Teruel — taking up a more direct role in episcopal appointments, even in the drafting of shortlists of candidates.

Still, the trio of bishop members seemed able to sideline the nuncio and Cardinal Prevost when he served as the prefect of the Dicastery of Bishops, in recommending candidates for episcopal appointments throughout Spain directly to Francis.

Their influence, however, may now be waning.

Sources close to the Spanish bishops’ conference told The Pillar that Pope Leo wants to return episcopal appointments to their normal process, with the nuncio and the whole of the Dicastery for Bishops, taking the lead role.

“Let’s just say Pope Leo is not a fan of what was going on in the dicastery. He doesn’t have any personal animosity towards Cobo, but he doesn’t trust him as Francis did, and he didn’t like his meddling with appointments,” a source close to the Archdiocese of Madrid told The Pillar.

“Omella has been trying to play his game and saying he still has the pope’s ear, but most people don’t think that’s the case anymore,” the source added.

One example of this: local sources have told The Pillar that Omella’s recommendation to lead the Diocese of Málaga — the largest non-metropolitan see in Spain — is Satué.

But it had previously been understood that Omella, who is currently 79 years old, had wanted Satué to follow him in Barcelona, the second-largest see in the country, and which usually comes with a red hat.

If Omella is now pushing for Satué in Málaga, a smaller, less influential diocese than Barcelona, and one that would most likely not come with the cardinalate, it would seem to indicate an abrupt shift on his part and a lowering of expectations regarding his scope to name his own successor.

Additionally, according to Religión Confidencial, Pope Leo decided to meet with former nuncio Bernardito Auza on May 23 — reassigned by Pope Francis to become nuncio to the European Union in March — to get an idea of the landscape of the Spanish Church.

But Leo has not met with Omella, Cobo or Satué, all of whom might offer him a vastly different picture of the local church and hierarchy.

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One important factor in Pope Leo’s apparent plan to return Spanish episcopal appointments to a more institutional framework will be the appointment of the next nuncio.

If Auza’s successor as nuncio in Spain has a progressive or moderate bent, it could lead to even more rapid change in the composition of the Spanish episcopate and greater internal tensions among the bishops.

It is possible that the pope will take this dynamic into consideration with his appointment.

One name that has been floated as a possibility is Archbishop Edgar Peña Parra, currently sostituto at the Secretariat of State, a job which effectively functions as the papal chief of staff.

Sostituti seldom keep their job long after a new pope is elected, and they also rarely spend more than five years on the job, while Peña Parra has served over seven years on the role. The widespread expectation in Rome is that a change might come soon.

A more typical next role for a sostituto of the Secretariat of State is a senior-level curial role. But considering the various scandals on his record many predict that Peña Parra will be moved out of the Vatican.

The vacant nuncio’s job Madrid, on the other hand, is one of the most prominent diplomatic posts in the world, thereby allowing him to be moved out of the curia with minimal loss of face. According to sources both in Madrid and Rome, it is a possibility that is considered feasible and agreeable both in the Vatican and Spain.

Peña Parra is widely perceived in Spain as a potentially doctrinally orthodox nuncio who might continue in Auza’s line, at least according to some bishops who discussed the prospect with The Pillar.

Meanwhile, sources close to the Spanish bishops’ conference told The Pillar that Peña Parra had previously clashed with Cobo in Spanish episcopal appointments, which means he could serve as a counterbalance to Cobo’s influence in Spain.

In the expectations of many, the first months of Pope Leo’s pontificate have signaled a return to institutional normalcy and respect for rules and traditions, not only in matters of doctrine but of governance.

Spain could quickly become a litmus test of this reading. The country has a complicated episcopal landscape, more so by the informal networks that shaped appointments during Francis' pontificate. With sees like Málaga and Barcelona still vacant, and the appointment of a new nuncio on the horizon, the months ahead could mark a turning point.

Whether Pope Leo’s approach ushers in a period of stability marked by restoring the proper role of the nuncio and the Dicastery of Bishops– may depend on the people appointed and how these first appointments are made.