Titular bishop

A titular bishop in various churches is a bishop who is not in charge of a diocese. By definition a bishop is an "overseer" of a community of the faithful, so when a priest is ordained a bishop the tradition of the Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches is that he be ordained for a specific place. There are more bishops than there are functioning dioceses. Therefore a priest appointed not to head a diocese as its diocesan bishop, but to be an auxiliary bishop, a papal diplomat, or an official of the Roman Curia is appointed to a titular see.

Roman Catholic Church

In the Roman Catholic Church, a titular bishop is a bishop who is not in charge of a diocese. Examples of bishops belonging to this category are coadjutor bishops, auxiliary bishops, bishops emeriti, vicars apostolic, nuncios, superiors of departments in the Roman Curia, and cardinal bishops of suburbicarian dioceses (since they are not in charge of the suburbicarian dioceses). Most titular bishops hold the title to a titular see. Assigning titular sees serves two purposes. Since part of being a bishop means being the head of a Church, titular sees serve that purpose for bishops without a diocese. At the same time, the office of titular bishop memorializes ancient Churches, most of which were suppressed because they fell into the hands of non-Christian conquerors. For this reason the former terminology was not "titular bishop" but "bishop in infidel regions" (in partibus infidelium). In recent times the names of titular sees are drawn also in numerous cases from those of former dioceses which were absorbed into other dioceses or expanded and hence moved to larger towns and cities.

Titular see

A titular see in various churches is an episcopal see of a former diocese that no longer functions, sometimes called a "dead diocese". The ordinary or hierarch of such a see may be styled a "titular bishop", "titular metropolitan", or "titular archbishop".

The term is used to signify a diocese that no longer functionally exists, often because the diocese once flourished but the territory was conquered for Islam or no longer functions because of a schism. The Greek–Turkish population exchange of 1923 also contributed to titular bishoprics. The see of Maximianoupolis was destroyed along with the town that shared its name by the Bulgarians under Emperor Kaloyan in 1207; the town and the see were under the control of the Latin Empire, which took Constantinople during the Fourth Crusade in 1204.

Titular sees are also used to avoid causing offense or confusion when a bishop of one church serves its faithful in a place where he states no claim of jurisdiction over the faithful of another church dominant there.