The appointment of Rt. Rev. Msgr. Joseph L. Bernardin as Auxiliary-Bishop of Atlanta also includes his appointment as Titular Bishop of Lugura. Lugura was formerly a Christian community, in present day Algeria.

Customarily, as in the case of Bishop Bernardin, he was named to a diocese that is actually no longer in existence.

The Church, has a long past, in which it has experienced a steady growth in most areas and spectacular progress in others. But over the centuries it has lost its place almost completely in some dioceses which were once flourishing.

In Asia Minor and North Africa, particularly, the Catholic churches of the earliest days fell into difficulties. Some broke away from Rome and became schismatic, others were swept under by the tide of Mohammedanism, still others disappeared as the worldly position of their districts declined. In this way some glorious Christian history was destroyed, the succession of bishops broken, and even the names of the dioceses forgotten.

So that the memory of this Catholic past might be remembered. The Church instituted the practice of assigning the names of these defunct dioceses to bishops who are not themselves given charge of a regular diocese. Coadjutor and auxiliary bishops -- and bishops working in missionary lands or in the papal diplomatic service -- thus receive the name of Titular Bishop.

The document from Rome announcing an appointment to a Titular See gives this explanation: “It is the custom of the Apostolic See to confer on these bishops the title of one of those Churches which in days past flourished with the splendor of virtue and the progress of religion, even though as a result of the changes and ravages of time they may now have lost their ancient resplendent glory.”

The Titular Bishop does not exercise any jurisdiction in his Titular See. The Church, with its long perspective, has not abandoned the possibility that the wheel of history may turn full circle and bring a need for active bishops to these places again. But currently it asks the Titular Bishop only to offer Mass several times each year for the people of his Titular See.