Funeral services are scheduled to begin Wednesday for Auxiliary Bishop David O’Connell, a beloved fixture in Los Angeles who was shot to death last month.
The first of three masses for “Bishop Dave,” as he was commonly called, will be Wednesday night, followed by two more masses on Thursday and Friday.
The schedule is as follows:
Wednesday, March 1: A San Gabriel Pastoral Region memorial mass will take place at St. John Vianney Catholic Church, located at 1345 Turnbull Canyon Road in Hacienda Heights. The mass will begin at 7 p.m. and will be livestreamed on nbcla.com, as well as the Archdiocese of Los Angeles website.
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Thursday, March 2: A public viewing will be held from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. and 1 p.m. to 6 p.m. at the Cathedral of Our Lady of Angels at 555 West Temple St. in Los Angeles. A vigil mass will follow at 7 p.m. and will be livestreamed on the cathedral’s YouTube page and the LA Archdiocese website.
Friday, March 3: A funeral mass will take place at 11 a.m. at the Cathedral of Our Lady of Angels. It will be livestreamed at the cathedral’s YouTube page and the LA Archdiocese website.
O’Connell was born in County Cork, Ireland in 1953 and was named an auxiliary bishop for the Archdiocese of Los Angeles by Pope Francis in 2015, according to the archdiocese. He served as a priest and bishop in LA County for more than 45 years.
Since his death, community members and public officials have paid tribute to O’Connell, whom they recalled as compassionate, especially to immigrants and other marginalized people.
"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, a good bishop and a man of peace, and we are very sad to lose him," Los Angeles Archbishop José Gomez said.
O’Connell was found dead Feb. 18 at his archdiocese-owned home in Hacienda Heights. Authorities said he had been shot multiple times in the upper torso.
The accused killer is 61-year-old Carlos Medina, the husband of O’Connell’s housekeeper. Michael Modica, a lieutenant with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, said Medina provided various reasons for the slaying, none of which "made any sense" to investigators. As such, detectives "don't believe there's any validity” to Medina’s alleged claims that the bishop owed him money, Modica said.
Medina is charged with murdering O’Connell. Investigators have not yet established a possible motive for the killing.
