 Otherwise Nardò and Gallipoli might have shared a bishop, as the Bishop of Nardo e Gallipoli.Instead, the Vatican continued consultations which had begun under Pope John XXIII for the merging of small dioceses, especially those with personnel and financial problems, into one combined diocese.On 30 September 1986, Pope John Paul II ordered that the dioceses of Nardò and Gallipoli be merged into one diocese with one bishop, with the Latin title "Dioecesis Neritonensis-Gallipolitana".