Bishop David O’Connell, seen above at a gathering of the USA Convention of Catholic Bishops in 2021, is being remembered as a peacemaker and “actually a person of God.”
Julio Cortez/AP
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Julio Cortez/AP
Bishop David O’Connell, seen above at a gathering of the USA Convention of Catholic Bishops in 2021, is being remembered as a peacemaker and “actually a person of God.”
Julio Cortez/AP
A Catholic bishop who church leaders remembered as a “peacemaker” was discovered useless of a gunshot wound on Saturday.
The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Division introduced on Sunday that Los Angeles Archdiocese Auxiliary Bishop David O’Connell was killed and mentioned it was working to seek out “these accountable” for his demise. O’Connell was 69.
In response to the report that O’Connell was killed, Los Angeles Archbishop José H. Gomez mentioned, “We’re deeply disturbed and saddened by this information.”
In the future earlier, Gomez mentioned O’Connell had “handed away unexpectedly,” however gave no further particulars.
“It’s a shock and I’ve no phrases to precise my unhappiness,” Gomez mentioned.
“He was a peacemaker with a coronary heart for the poor and the immigrant, and he had a ardour for constructing a group the place the sanctity and dignity of each human life was honored and guarded,” the archbishop added.
The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Division beforehand mentioned investigators responded to a capturing demise at 12:57 p.m. on Saturday within the LA suburb of Hacienda Heights, the place an grownup male was pronounced useless.
“Bishop O’Connell was a guiding mild for therefore many, and his legacy will proceed to stay on,” the division mentioned in an announcement.
O’Connell was remembered as “actually a person of God”
O’Connell was born in County Cork, Eire, and ordained within the Los Angeles Archdiocese in 1979, the diocesan information website Angelus Information reported. Pope Francis named O’Connell an auxiliary bishop in 2015.
Through the years, O’Connell was a pastor at a lot of parishes in Los Angeles and a number of other close by communities. He labored on efforts to curb violence within the metropolis, and lots of of his congregants have been minorities and immigrants.
“It has been the good pleasure of my life to be the pastor of those folks, particularly those who’re struggling or in want or going through issue,” O’Connell instructed Angelus Information in 2015.
“And it has been an excellent privilege, an excellent blessing to be given these parishes all these years, to be pastor all these years. The folks have touched my coronary heart the way in which they’re honest,” he added.
Gomez mentioned O’Connell had served as a priest and later a bishop in Los Angeles for 45 years.
On Saturday, parishioners gathered on the scene of O’Connell’s demise and lit candles in reminiscence of the spiritual chief, Los Angeles Day by day Information reporter Clara Harter tweeted.
Tributes to O’Connell additionally poured in on social media, the place folks expressed shock and unhappiness on the bishop’s sudden demise.
Norma Seni Pimentel, govt director of Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande Valley, known as O’Connell “actually a person of God” in a tweet.
“Your sudden departure has left us extraordinarily unhappy,” Pimentel mentioned. “[M]ay you relaxation in peace Bishop O’Connell.”
Immigration lawyer Linda Dakin-Grimm said O’Connell was “there for each little one and household I’ve represented. At all times. Serving to, supporting and customarily being the face of Jesus for me and lots of many others.”
