Archbishop José H. Gomez formally installed Bishop Marc V. Trudeau as the new auxiliary bishop for the San Pedro Pastoral Region of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles on Sunday during a special Mass at the St. Bernard Parish in Bellflower.
Priests and deacons from around the region attended the ceremony, where the new auxiliary bishop received the blessing of the archbishop, the applause of the congregation in the packed church and, in a lighter moment, the keys to the auxiliary bishop’s dwelling.
The new auxiliary bishop was appointed by Pope Francis in April and was ordained on June 6. During his ordination, the new auxiliary bishop received his pontifical insignia, a bishop’s ring, miter and staff, according to a statement from the archdiocese. The insignia signifies the bishop’s role as supervising priest. The ring represents his bond with the church, while the miter and staff signify his authority.
Ordained to the priesthood in 1991, he was born in Hollywood, practiced dentistry and is a survivor of cancer.
The new auxiliary bishop worked at supermarket for more than a decade to pay for college, graduating twice from University of Southern California.
Full story at The Press-Telegram.
Auxiliary bishops don’t do much. They just do confirmations in dioceses where there are too many parishes for the real bishop to handle. If the Church made sense it would break up diocese that need auxiliary bishops into smaller dioceses. Why not? Why have a mega diocese with auxiliary bishops instead of smaller dioceses each with their own legitimate bishop? Makes no sense.
Regardless of the merits of your idea, I think everyone recognizes that the massive Archdiocese of Los Angeles is too big and needs to be cut into two or more pieces.
Agreed. It’s been a long time coming and needs to happen yesterday. The reason AB Gomez won’t split it? $$$$$$$
Italy is looking to going in the opposite direction and figure how. To merge some of its 250 or so dioceses. Too many chanceries doing the same thing a short ways from each other,combined with dropping parish populations
What is also strange is that some Archdioceses have a considerably smaller Catholic population than certain Dioceses. For example, Mobile Alabama is an Archdiocese. Four or five Dioceses in California have larger catholic populations.
But remember, more dioceses mean more bucks for diocesan staff and related costs.
I agree LA should have been split long ago. Ventura County? Santa Barbara? Even Long Beach and eastern LA County suburbs?
I thought comments were posted in time stamp order?