Bishop Galantino has written to indicate that the interdiocesan tribunals should be shut down, while the Apostolic Signatura, the Church's supreme tribunal, has maintained that the regional tribunals continue to function.
The bishops of each Italian region, meanwhile, hold periodic meetings before the general assembly, and the regional bishops' conference has been tackling the issue of how to handle the reform, and to keep the prices and services the way they were.
According to Albero Bobbio of the Italian Catholic magazine 'Famiglia Cristiana," "regional tribunals guarantee more effectiveness, legal certainty, and avoid the hiring of temporary workers, which is a normal procedure when there are small tribunals handling just a few causes."
A collection of the notes sent to the Pontifical Council for Legislative Text in order to have a correct interpretation of the motu proprio can be seen in a ponderous study drafted by Geraldina Boni, a professor of canon law at the Alma Mater University of Bologna.
Most of the Italian regional bishops' conferences held that Pope Francis' reform would be better applied if the regional tribunals were maintained.
For example, the bishops' conference of Puglia wrote Dec. 7, 2015 that the new norms "could be better accomplished" within the "perennial experience and competence" developed since Qua Cura. And the bishops of Tuscany wrote that "the positive experience of regional tribunals" should not be lost.
Similar remarks came from other regional bishops' conferences.
And when all the Italian bishops gathered in Rome for their general assembly last month, the issue was widely discussed.
The establishment of the "bilateral working group" is then a response to the debate raised during the Italian bishops' general assembly, and an attempt to find a way forward in the application of the reform.
Andrea Gagliarducci is an Italian journalist for Catholic News Agency and Vatican analyst for ACI Stampa. He is a contributor to the National Catholic Register.