Before Paul VI died in 1978, Arns worked with him on a plan for the division of the Archdiocese of São Paulo. It would have established subordinate dioceses under independent bishops who would share financial and institutional resources and a common pastoral plan with each other and the archdiocese. It was never implemented. Instead, on 15 March 1989, the archdiocese was split into five dioceses in a way that, in Arns' view, divided the rich and the poor. His archdiocese lost half of its population, retaining the largely middle class core of the city and isolating it from the city's "impoverished periphery". None of the bishops chosen to head the new dioceses were drawn from the list of candidates Arns had submitted. He said: "everything I asked for was disregarded and the traditionalist line prevailed. It was our wish that a different way of dealing with pastoral activities in the metropolitan regions be adopted, but the Roman Curia, treating this just as any other matter, paid no heed for it. ...Because of the way it was done, the church in São Paulo is spending 10 times more in order to produce results which are 10 times smaller".