What is a see? (Glad you asked: Q&A on church teaching).

Have you ever met the bishop of Numluli, Afufenia, Vatarba, Gisipa, or Tusurus? It's not as unlikely as you may think. They are in fact the auxiliary bishops of Baltimore, St. Paul and Minneapolis, Detroit, Brooklyn, and Washington.

Few Catholics realize that many of our bishops head "dioceses" that are actually defunct administrative districts in countries that have few or no Catholics at all. Known as titular sees, they exist in name only, and most of them are located in Muslim countries where evangelization is forbidden by law or in nations where the vast majority of Christians belong to the Orthodox Church. This strange ecclesiastical quirk has come about because of the importance of sees.

Simply put, a see is the administrative district (diocese) assigned as the principal obligation of a particular bishop. It is derived from the Latin word for "seat," sedes. Its use is similar to the way we speak of a judge's bench, and by this we mean more than just the place where a judge is seated. The term denotes the authority we invest in our courts and our respect for the rule of law.

Something similar occurred in ancient civilizations as all types of persons with authority came to be symbolized by the seat upon which they rested while conducting official business. When proclaiming royal edicts, even monarchs took a seat upon their thrones in order to demonstrate that their decree possessed legitimate authority. Our use of the word "chairperson" demonstrates that this idea is still with us.

As the early church became acceptable to Roman society, it took on many of the administrative traditions and symbols of the empire. Bishops adopted the practice of using a sedes as a sign of their office, and the church over which the bishop served as pastor came to be known as a cathedral (from another Latin word for "chair," cathedra). To this day, our cathedrals are marked by the prominence of a large chair located in the sanctuary as the sedes or cathedra of the local bishop. Only a bishop is given the privilege of preaching or teaching from his chair during liturgy.

According to custom, every bishop must have his own see. The primary bishop of a diocese is referred to as the ordinary. If the administrative and sacramental needs of a large diocese require assisting bishops, these are known as auxiliaries. Each of them is assigned a titular see, which they rule by title only. Because of shifting sands, some titular sees in Africa are now little more than deserts.

Among active sees, the most famous is probably that of the bishop of Rome. It is referred to as the Holy See and sometimes called the Chair of Peter. Papal teachings considered infallible are decreed ex cathedra, or "from the chair."

By JOHN SWITZER, a doctoral candidate at Boston College where his research centers on interreligious learning.