But just what does it mean to be a titular bishop, and why is this done?
The problem is that every bishop has to be the “bishop of” someplace. So, while auxiliary bishops are appointed to serve as assistants to an archbishop of a very much active archdiocese, they must have some kind of diocese of their own.
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Since the 16th century, the Church has been breathing a bit of new life into defunct — often long defunct — dioceses to serve as “titular sees.” They don’t really exist as a diocese, but only as a title.
Most of these titular sees are in areas such as North Africa, where once-thriving Christian communities were obliterated by the Muslim conquest. Many others are in areas where, usually as the result of military conquests, the Roman Catholic Church was completely supplanted by the Eastern Orthodox.
The titular sees of Auxiliary Bishops Michael Byrnes and Jose Arturo Cepeda fall into the first category. Bishop Byrnes’ is titular bishop of Eguga, which was in the Roman Empire’s province of Proconsolare in the vicinity of ancient Carthage, in what is now Tunisia. Although long defunct as a diocese, it revived as a titular see in 1928.
Bishop Cepeda is titular bishop of Tagase, which was a diocese in the Roman province of Byzacena, also in modern-day Tunisia.
Auxiliary Bishop Donald Hanchon’s titular see falls into the second category; he is titular bishop of Horreomargum (or Orreomargum), which was in the Roman province of Mesia Superiore, and is now Viminacio, Bulgaria. That area has long been dominated by the Bulgarian Orthodox Church, but the diocese was revived as a titular see in 1933.
Bishops Hanchon, Byrnes and Cepeda are, respectively, the 26th, 27th and 28th auxiliary bishops to be named to serve the Archdiocese of Detroit.
