The family of Bishop David O’Connell, who was shot dead in Los Angeles last weekend, are preparing to travel to the United States for his funeral next week which is expected to see thousands of people in his adopted home pay their final respects.
Bishop O’Connell (69), who was found shot dead in the bedroom of his house on Janla Avenue in Hacienda Heights in Los Angeles last Saturday, was born in Cork but had spent over 40 years ministering to disadvantaged and immigrant communities in Los Angeles.
He grew up on a farm at Casey’s Cross near Brooklodge in Glounthaune, just east of Cork City, and he was predeceased by his parents, David and Joan, as well as three of his four siblings, Don, Liam and Geraldine.
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Bishop O’Connell is survived by his younger brother, Kieran and his family.
Members of the O’Connell family are expected to travel to Los Angeles at the weekend for funeral services which will take place over a three-day period beginning with a memorial mass at 7pm local time next Wednesday at St John Vianney Catholic Church in Hacienda Heights where he lived.
Bishop O’Connell will lie in repose next Thursday at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels in downtown Los Angeles with mourners able to pay their respects at public viewings between 10am and noon and 1pm to 6pm with a vigil mass scheduled for 7pm.
The funeral mass will take place at the Cathedral of the Angels at 11am on Friday where the principal celebrant will be Archbishop Jose Horacio Gomez who described Bishop O’Connell as “a good friend” at a police press briefing on Monday to announce investigators had arrested a suspect.
Local political leaders have paid tribute to the late bishop for his work in ministering in some of Los Angeles’ poorest communities where he was an advocate for immigrants and the homeless while also working to build bridges between disadvantaged communities and the police.
Chair of the Los Angeles Board of Supervisors, Janice Hahn recalled how she first met Bishop O’Connell, then Fr O’Connell, when she represented Watts on Los Angeles City Council, and he was a pastor at Ascension Catholic Church in south Los Angeles
“He was known to walk among the people, he reached out to gang members, to the homeless, to the transients. He was the help of the helpless and the hope of the hopeless and he knew that serving God meant serving man and especially the most vulnerable in our society.
“He devoted himself to supporting immigrants, not only making sure that they had food and shelter but even helping immigrant children, unaccompanied minors get into Catholic schools and into college – his heart was boundless – the Catholics of Los Angeles have lost an incredible leader.”
Last November, Bishop O’Connell recalled his early days in Los Angeles when he gave an address to his fellow American bishops at an event to mark the 50th anniversary of the founding of the Catholic Campaign for Human Development (CCHD) set up to help disadvantaged communities.
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“I began my ministry in South Los Angeles in the late 80s and early 90s. The problems then were very similar to what is facing our inner cities now. We had riots where 70 people were killed and businesses were burned down,” he recalled.
“[We had] thousands of young African American and Latino youths whose lives were destroyed by drugs and gang violence. We had thousands of immigrants coming in every week at a time when the state of California was turning against immigrants.
“Our response was to organise and with help from CCHD, we conducted hundreds of house meetings, thousands of one-on-ones, and built relationships between people. We worked with police, sheriffs, and gang intervention workers.
“We built up leadership within our parishes. We worked with the city and county to build a way forward for our people. Our Catholic parishes were doing the work of community organising to together transform the lives of the people of South Los Angeles.
“We achieved a huge reduction in violence, better schools, and safer neighbourhoods. The work of organising worked then and it can work now as we face these problems all over our country,” he told his fellow bishops before outlining the important work done by the CCHD since 1972.
He pointed out that CCHD had given €440 million in grants to over 12,000 community-based projects across the US to help communities tackle poverty and injustice, including giving over €28 million to organisations supporting immigrant rights.
“CCHD supports organisations and initiatives that address the root causes of poverty by empowering those who are victims of injustice to decide for themselves how to transform their communities into places where all can thrive,” he said.
Thanking his fellow bishops for their support over 50 years, Bishop O’Connell said that as a result of their unselfish support, tens of thousands of beneficiaries had seen their lives improved as they changed the reality of the world around them.
“At a recent homily, Pope Francis said that when the poor organise to improve their lives, they bring something new into the world – they bring hope to all of us – I would like to invite you to join us on this journey as we walk together to bring hope to our world.”
