Bishop David O’Connell

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News Briefs

Housekeeper’s husband officially charged in murder of LA Auxiliary Bishop O’Connell

February 22, 2023 Catholic News Agency 0
Los Angeles Auxiliary Bishop David O’Connell / Credit: MajorChange/YouTube Jul 26, 2020

Boston, Mass., Feb 22, 2023 / 16:40 pm (CNA).

Carlos Medina, the suspect in the murder of Los Angeles Auxiliary Bishop David O’Connell, was arraigned in state court Wednesday and formally charged with one count of murder and a special allegation that he personally used a firearm.

“This was a brutal act of violence against a person who dedicated his life to making our neighborhoods safer, healthier, and [who always served] with love and compassion,” District Attorney George Gascón said in a Wednesday press release.

“As Catholics around Los Angeles and the nation start the holy season of Lent, let us reflect on Bishop O’Connell’s life of service and dedication to those in greatest need of our care,” Gascón said. “Charging Mr. Medina will never repair the tremendous harm that was caused by this callous act, but it does take us one step closer to accountability.”

News of O’Connell’s death shocked the nation and rocked the local and international Catholic community.

O’Connell was found dead with “at least” one gunshot wound to his upper body on Feb. 18 in his bedroom at his Hacienda Heights home, Los Angeles Sheriff Robert Luna said in a Monday press conference.

After an around-the-clock manhunt for the killer, sheriff’s deputies were tipped about a person of interest in the city of Torrance, which is about a 45-minute drive southwest from Hacienda Heights, where O’Connell was found dead.

Detectives had identified the person of interest as Medina, the husband of O’Connell’s housekeeper, on Sunday evening after the tipster told them that Medina was exhibiting “strange” and “irrational” behavior and had “made comments about the bishop owing him money.”

Police had also discovered video evidence of a “dark-colored, compact SUV” that had pulled into the bishop’s driveway, stayed for a short time, and then left, the sheriff said.

Medina drove a similar type of vehicle, Luna said.

On Monday morning at about 2 a.m. local time, sheriff’s deputies arrived at Medina’s home after being tipped off that he arrived at his residence.

With a warrant in hand for his arrest, sheriff’s deputies called for Medina, 61, to surrender, but he refused to come out of his residence.

The sheriff department’s Special Enforcement Bureau personnel arrived at the scene with an amended warrant to search Medina’s home and arrest him. Medina exited his home and surrendered to authorities at about 8:15 a.m. local time, “without further incident,” Luna said.

Two firearms “and other evidence” possibly incriminating Medina were found at his residence in Torrance during his arrest at approximately 8:15 a.m. Monday, the sheriff said.

Those firearms will be examined and tested in a crime lab to determine if they were used in the murder.

Offering remarks at Monday’s press conference, Los Angeles Archbishop José Gomez broke into tears and struggled to complete his brief comments on Bishop O’Connell.

“Out of his love for God, he served this city for more than 40 years,” Gomez said.

“Every day he worked to show compassion to the poor, to the homeless, to the immigrant, and to all those living on society’s margins. He was a good priest and a good bishop and a man of peace, and we are very sad to lose him,” Gomez said.

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News Briefs

Murdered Bishop David O’Connell mourned in his native Ireland

February 21, 2023 Catholic News Agency 1
Bishop David O’Connell. / Credit: KTLA screenshot

St. Louis, Mo., Feb 21, 2023 / 10:40 am (CNA).

David O’Connell, an auxiliary bishop of Los Angeles who was shot and killed over the weekend, is being mourned in his home country of Ireland.

O’Connell was born in 1953 in County Cork, on Ireland’s southern coast. He was baptized at Sacred Heart Church in the village of Glounthaune, where he later served as an altar boy. Sacred Heart was also where he celebrated his first Mass following his ordination in 1979, RTÉ reported. 

Father Tom Hayes, a priest of the local Diocese of Cork and Ross, said his entire parish — about an hour’s drive from O’Connell’s — is talking about the tragic killing. O’Connell maintained close ties to Cork, returning at least once a year, most recently last summer, Hayes said. 

“[His murder] is a front-page story here in Ireland since it happened, and it’s on the television and radio news, and so it’s getting quite a lot of news attention,” Hayes told CNA. 

“So almost everybody has heard about it. And, yeah, people are shocked. I met one young woman today, and her issue was that she just couldn’t understand how one human being could take up a gun in close proximity to somebody else and kill them. But that’s kind of a reflection of maybe the difference in cultures as well, because in Ireland, we don’t have gun violence for the most part.”

Appointed a bishop in 2015, O’Connell ministered to immigrants, the poor, and victims of gang violence for 45 years in the South Los Angeles area. O’Connell was 69 when a deacon found him dead in his home Saturday in Hacienda Heights with at least one gunshot wound to the chest. A suspect has been arrested and on Monday was identified as 65-year-old Carlos Medina, the husband of O’Connell’s housekeeper. The investigation is ongoing. 

Father Damian O’Mahony, co-pastor of O’Connell’s home parish of Sacred Heart, told CNA that “Bishop Dave never forgot his native home here in Cork,” describing him as “a proud Corkman, and he always let people know.”

“Naturally, those parishioners who knew Bishop Dave and those who know his family here in the parish were very shocked and upset and there was an air of disbelief,” O’Mahony told CNA. 

“A Memorial Mass will be held in the Sacred Heart Glounthaune at a later date where those in his native parish will gather to pray for, remember, and celebrate the life of a good man who was taken so tragically and so cruelly from this life. It will also be an opportunity to show our continued support for his family as they come to terms with the loss of someone much loved and who will be missed dearly.”

At the regularly scheduled Mass on Feb. 20, O’Mahony noted that O’Connell has several surviving family members in County Cork, including a brother. 

“We also pray for and remember his family at this time in the parish … his many, many friends in this time of heartbreak, shock, tears, sadness, and sorrow and all here in the parish who would have known him as well,” O’Mahony said, as reported by RTÉ. 

The local bishop of O’Connell’s home diocese also spoke out in remembrance of the murdered bishop, urging prayers for him and for his family. 

“Since his ordination in 1979 Bishop David has served as a priest in Los Angeles but has always maintained his connection with family and friends here in Cork, where has been a regular visitor. We pray that the Lord will console Bishop David’s many friends in Cork and throughout Ireland,” Bishop Fintan Gavin of Cork and Ross said in a Feb. 19 statement. 

“We will pray for Bishop David at Mass throughout the Diocese of Cork and Ross in the coming days, asking the Lord to comfort his family, his colleagues, and all the bereaved. Bishop David worked tirelessly for peace and harmony in communities; may he now rest in the peace of the Lord.”

O’Connell was ordained during an era when many of the young men from Ireland becoming priests were sent abroad as missionaries, Hayes noted. For his part, O’Connell decided to come to the United States due in part to meeting fellow Irishman Cardinal Timothy Manning, who was then the archbishop of Los Angeles.

“In that providential conversation, the cardinal convinced him that Los Angeles was where he should go. So then he went and trained for the priesthood here in Ireland. The college that he trained at in Dublin is called All Hallows College, and the vast majority of seminarians who studied in that college studied to serve in dioceses in other countries,” Hayes said. 

Many priests of a similar age to O’Connell came from Ireland to the United States and continue to minister throughout the country, he said. Beyond his visits back to Ireland, O’Connell was a very faithful supporter of his home diocese’s missions to Peru and Ecuador. Hayes said O’Connell would always warmly welcome Irish missionary priests to his parishes in the U.S., allowing them to preach and fundraise for their mission. 

Hayes said his parishioners remain shocked that a person who made such a positive effort in his community could be the victim of such a crime. 

“A lot of the people as well, and they’re also just shocked at the loss of what we see as somebody who was contributing very significantly to the life of his diocese and to the people that he was ministering to. And to have his life cut short is just such a shame,” Hayes said. 

He said that if anything at all good can come from O’Connell’s murder, it would be a wider recognition of the peacemaking work he did for so many years in Los Angeles. 

“It may inspire others to pick up some of the issues that he was advocating for — justice for the people on the margins of society — and to create a world of peace and fairness where people don’t have to be violent to one another. I think if that message gets amplified both in Ireland and in L.A., then that in itself would be a blessing.”

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The Dispatch

More bishops issue statements on Latin Mass, following papal document

July 19, 2021 Catholic News Agency 22
June 22,2013: The prostration of the ordinands during the Litany of the Saints at the Fraternity of St. Peter’s Roman parish, Santissima Trinità dei Pellegrini in Rome / CNA

Washington D.C., Jul 19, 2021 / 17:02 pm (CNA).

More U.S. bishops have issued guidance on the celebration of the Traditional Latin Mass in their dioceses, following a papal document that on Friday imposed restrictions on the use of traditional liturgy.

Archbishop Samuel Aquila of Denver, in a letter to priests of his archdiocese, has said that the celebration of the Traditional Latin Mass could continue as normal while he studied Pope Francis’ new motu proprio Traditionis Custodes (“Guardians of the tradition”).

The papal document, issued on Friday and effective immediately, allowed individual bishops the decision to authorize the use of the 1962 Roman Missal – which is in Latin – in their respective dioceses.

“At this time I need to study the document more, consult with the USCCB, and Canon Lawyers, before I make decisions on granting permission for the use of the Extraordinary Form of the Mass and the implementation of the norms given in the motu proprio,” Archbishop Aquila stated.

“I do not want to act precipitously on the document one way or another, since the limitations are great,” he added, informing priests that he would clarify the matter in an email in three weeks’ time.

“Until then things may proceed as they have,” he stated.

Other bishops from around the United States issued statements or responses in similar fashion over the weekend and into Monday, saying that they would study the motu proprio while allowing celebration of the Traditional Latin Mass to continue.

Pope Francis’ motu proprio made sweeping changes to Pope Benedict’s 2007 apostolic letter Summorum Pontificum, which had acknowledged the rights of all priests to offer Mass according to the Roman Missal of 1962, promulgated by Pope St. John XXIII. Traditionis Custodes states that it is a bishop’s “exclusive competence” to authorize the Traditional Mass in his diocese.

In addition, bishops with groups celebrating the Traditional Latin Mass in their dioceses are to ensure that the groups do not deny the validity of Vatican II, the document said. Bishops are to designate locations and times where Masses according to the 1962 Missal can be celebrated – but not at parochial churches. Readings at the Masses must be in the vernacular.

With questions arising as to the continuance of the Traditional Latin Mass in accord with the motu proprio, some bishops in the United States issued statements this weekend outlining the steps priests should take if they wish to continue offering the traditional liturgy in the short-term. The bishops said they needed to study the document to issue norms at a later date implementing its provisions.

Bishop Frank Caggiano of Bridgeport on Monday requested that all priests who offer the Traditional Latin Mass – including in private – write to him directly for temporary permission to continue doing so. He stated he would grant temporary faculties for private Masses, and hoped permanent norms to implement the document would be in place by the end of September.

Priests requesting permission to offer the Traditional Latin mass should include the date and time of the Mass, the celebrant, an approximate number of attendees, and an explanation of the pastoral need for the liturgy, he said. If the traditional liturgy has been offered on a regular basis at a particular location, priests should also say when regular celebration of the liturgy first began, he said.

As CNA already reported, the archdioceses of Oklahoma City and San Francisco, along with the dioceses of Arlington and Brownsville, allowed celebration of the Traditional Latin Mass to continue as normal.

The archdioceses of Baltimore, Boston, New Orleans, Philadelphia, and St. Paul-Minneapolis, as well as the dioceses of Charlotte, Lake Charles, Madison, and Pittsburgh are also allowing priests already celebrating Mass according to the 1962 Missal to continue doing so.

Bishop Donald Hying of Madison said that priests wishing to offer the Traditional Latin Mass could “presume” his authorization now, “but they should anticipate in the near future that I will ask them to contact me to request continued authorization,” he added.

Archbishop Bernard Hebda of St. Paul-Minneapolis said that priests wishing to offer the Traditional Mass should request authorization from him before the Solemnity of the Assumption.

“I am happy to grant the necessary faculties so that those priests who are already celebrating the rites of the Extraordinary Form may continue to do so,” he said. “I similarly direct that the Mass in the Extraordinary Form continue in those locations where it is currently being offered in the Archdiocese.”

Bishop Daniel Felton of Duluth stated on Friday that celebration of the Traditional Mass would continue at St. Benedict’s parish in Duluth; the situations at other parishes offering Mass with the 1962 Missal would “be examined on a case-by-case basis,” he said.

“As the Holy Father’s introduction notes, implementing these norms will take time. I encourage you to be mindful of the faithful who are devoted to the traditional liturgy and sensitive to their feelings at this time,” he said.

Bishop David O’Connell of Trenton said he authorized use of the 1962 Missal at five parishes, with a sixth permitted to offer the Traditional Latin Mass on First Fridays of every other month.

However, Bishop Anthony Taylor of Little Rock said that while two parishes administered by the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter would not be affected by the document, the celebration of the Traditional Latin Mass would cease at other “regular parish churches” in the diocese.

In their statements, some bishops said they needed to seek more clarity on the motu proprio as they prepared to issue norms implementing the document.

“The nuances and implications of the Holy Father’s motu proprio need some clarification, and I will seek to understand fully what the Holy See is decreeing before making any definitive decisions,” Bishop Hying stated.

Bishop Glen John Provost of Lake Charles stated that he learned of the document “through media sources without prior official communication” on the same day it was issued and went into effect. He added that the document “will be studied in due course with the input of my canonical and liturgical advisors.”

Bishop Andrew Cozzens, auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of St. Paul-Minneapolis, will chair a task force to study the motu proprio, Archbishop Hebda said.

Other bishops made statements specifically to Catholics who attend the Traditional Latin Mass.

“I want to assure all the priests and faithful of our diocese, especially those who may feel disheartened or discouraged by today’s developments, of my gratitude and support for your love for the Lord and the Church, your fidelity to the Gospel and the magisterium, your deep desire for holiness and your rich spirituality,” Bishop Hying stated.

“I love all of you as your shepherd and spiritual father.”


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