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. As there are more bishops than there are dioceses, a bishop who will not functionally head a diocese or archdiocese (they are destined to be appointed, e.g., an auxiliary bishop, a papal diplomat, an official of the Roman Curia, etc., or have retired from one of those) is given title of bishop. This is often (though not always) to a titular see, i.e. a diocese that no longer functionally exists.