Los Angeles' newest auxiliary bishop is a cancer survivor

Vatican City, Apr 5, 2018 / 05:12 am (CNA/EWTN News).- On Thursday Pope Francis appointed Msgr. Marc V. Trudeau, who survived lymphoma in 2008, an auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles.

He replaces Bishop Thomas J. Curry, whose resignation was accepted by Pope Francis April 3, after he reached age 75, the usual age of retirement, in January.

Trudeau joins Archbishop Jose H. Gomez and five other auxiliary bishops of Los Angeles, the largest archdiocese in the United States.

In 2008 he was diagnosed with lymphoma and underwent chemo and radiation therapy for three years before becoming cancer free. He told Angelus News, the newspaper of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, that having cancer 10 years ago gave him “a different view of life.”

“The little things are not so important anymore,” he noted. “I appreciate the things that are important, and I don’t sweat the small stuff anymore.”

Bishop-elect Trudeau, a fraternal twin, was born May 20, 1957, in Hollywood, California. He studied dentistry at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles from 1981-1985.

He was in the last part of dental school when he felt that he was being called to something else. He started studies at St. John’s Seminary in Camarillo in 1986 and was ordained a priest for the Archdiocese of Los Angeles Aug. 6, 1991.

After ordination he served at various parishes within the archdiocese, and was personal secretary to Cardinal Michael Mahony, bishop emeritus of Los Angeles, from 2001-2004.

He currently teaches at St. John’s Seminary, where he served as vice-rector from 2013-2014. He has been the seminary’s rector since 2014. The bishop-elect speaks both English and Spanish.

According to Angelus News, the call from the nuncio saying Pope Francis had appointed him an auxiliary bishop was a shock for Trudeau. “It was not what I expected,” he said.

The bishop-elect also said that for him the best part of being a priest is Sundays.

“We tell the guys here at the seminary that you can’t just rest on Sundays, it’s a day of evangelizing, preaching, visiting, being present to the people. That’s the day that they’re able to come, so you have to be present to them.”