Catholic Dictionary

Find accurate definitions of over 5,000 Catholic terms and phrases (including abbreviations). Based on Fr. John Hardon's Modern Catholic Dictionary, © Eternal Life. Used with permission.

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TITULAR SEES

Some two thousand ancient Catholic dioceses and archdioceses whose titles are now given to those bishops who do not occupy residential sees, e.g., auxiliary or coadjutor bishops, vicars apostolic, and officials of the Roman Curia. Most of these sees are in Asia Minor, North Africa, the Balkans, and Greece. After the Moslems had destroyed the Church in these lands, the extinct dioceses were called sees "in the lands of the infidels." But in 1882, Pope Leo XIII changed the title to "titular sees."