How can there be "decentralization" within the Western patriarchate (the model being used here for convenience, not because it necessarily corresponds to ecclesial reality - we could just say the Roman-rite churches) if the metropolitans and bishops don't do what they can now, with the authority they've always had, to reform their dioceses first (and if necessary, to create new dioceses from within old ones)? How can members of a national conference of bishops discuss "national" questions if they do not even properly understand the problems besetting the local church?