 After extensive consultations, Pope John Paul II decreed that the status of the bishop governing several dioceses "aeque personaliter" was abolished, and that the Diocese of Macerata-Tolentino was merged with the Diocese of Osimo e Cingoli, the Diocese of Recanati and the Diocese of San Severino (Treia) to form a single diocese, albeit with a long name.The changes were embodied in a decree of the Sacred Congregation of Bishops in the Roman Curia, promulgated on 30 September 1986.The seat of the merged dioceses was to be in Macerata.