Thala in Tunisia is not a remarkable city by any means. Nestled in the mountains, the North African country’s highest town – and its almost entirely Muslim population – was probably unaware that Pope Francis had a particular interest in the settlement. In 2016, he even went so far as to appoint the then 45-year-old priest Richard Umbers as Thala’s bishop.
But just as the 13,000 residents of Thala are unaware of their Catholic prelate, Bishop Umbers knows little about Thala. While one would assume that, like most bishops, he has been responsible for the town’s spiritual wellbeing for the past two years, Bishop Umbers in fact lives in Sydney and is part of an elaborate legal fiction the Vatican has used for centuries.
