Titular church

Patriarchs of Eastern Catholic Churches who are created cardinal bishops are not assigned titles of suburbicarian dioceses.

The most ancient reference to such a Roman church is in the Apology against the Arians of Athanasius[5] in the fourth century, which speaks of a council of bishops assembled "in the place where the Priest Vitus held his congregation".

each was assigned theoretical responsibility for one or other of the Roman churches,[7] a legal fiction establishing their position within the Pope's diocese of Rome.

It was understood that they had no obligation to reside in Rome, and so were not personally responsible for the pastoral care of the titular churches assigned to them.

For example, Jean-Claude Turcotte, former archbishop of Montreal, was made Cardinal Priest of the Santi Martiri Canadesi (Holy Canadian Martyrs); André Vingt-Trois, former Archbishop of Paris, is the cardinal priest of San Luigi dei Francesi (St. Louis, King of France).

In the wider sense, the term titular church is also loosely applied to the deaconries diaconiae in Rome assigned to the cardinal-deacons.

Originally, a deaconry was a charitable institution in Christian Rome, first mentioned in connection with Pope Benedict II (684–685).

[5] Since the medieval period, men appointed cardinal deacons are often holders of high office in the Roman Curia.

Despite this new rule, the Popes have continued to appoint as cardinals a limited number of priests or bishops who have already reached 80 years of age.

Among the cases that may arise are those of a bishop or archbishop who is widely esteemed but is not made a cardinal for some specific (though rarely publicly announced) reason.

However, a commonly used alternative procedure is to raise the church to which he is already attached pro hac vice to the rank of a "titulus".