When Bishop Michael Izen’s appointment as auxiliary bishop of St. Paul and Minneapolis was announced Jan. 5, Archbishop Bernard Hebda said it was providential that the soon-to-be-bishop’s titular see would be Neoportus, or Newport, in South Wales.

It was the titular see held by the late Archbishop Fulton Sheen, widely known for his books and radio and television programs including “Life Is Worth Living” and “The Fulton Sheen Program.”

Bishop Izen still has a book by Archbishop Sheen that was treasured by his father, the late John Izen, titled “Life of Christ.” The bishop’s sister, Mary Izen Book of St. Timothy in Blaine, said she remembers her parents watching Archbishop Sheen’s TV program every Sunday night.

“Well, who doesn’t look up to Archbishop Fulton Sheen?” Bishop Izen said in an email in the weeks leading up to his April 11 ordination at the Cathedral of St. Paul in St. Paul. “I don’t know if I’ll ever get to visit South Wales, but that would be quite a gift. My dad never went to college, but he was bright and liked to read. He had secular and Catholic books on his bookshelf. ‘Life of Christ’ is one of the few books that I inherited from my father that I have actually read. As is the case with everything Sheen wrote, it is a great read, and I will sometimes turn to it for homily material.”

Titular sees are former dioceses that have been suppressed or substantially reconfigured and the location of the cathedral transferred to another location, often because they fell into the hands of non-Christian conquerors, were part of a schism, or the number of Catholics sharply declined or moved to another part of the diocese.

Auxiliary bishops, as well as bishops holding titles and responsibilities that do not entail overseeing a specific diocese, such as papal nuncios, vicars apostolic and superiors of departments in the Roman Curia, are given a titular see in recognition of their episcopal status.