Funeral details announced for Cork Bishop killed in Los Angeles 

Bishop O’Connell was found in his home on Hacienda Drive last Saturday after being shot multiple times. A church deacon made the discovery at around 1pm local time after Bishop O’Connell failed to turn up for a meeting. File Picture: AP Photo/Julio Cortez, File

Bishop David O’Connell will be laid to rest next week in a crypt in the Cathedral of Los Angeles.

The 69-year-old Brooklodge native was shot multiple times in bed in his home at Hacienda Heights in Los Angeles last Saturday. A huge outpouring of grief has followed his death.

His funeral Mass will take place on Friday morning, March 3, at 10am local time. It is expected that the ceremony will be live-streamed.

The funeral on Friday will follow other Masses earlier next week.

On Wednesday evening, a Mass will be held in St John Vianney Church in Hacienda Heights, close to his home.

Another Mass will take place in the Cathedral of Los Angeles on Thursday, according to his close friend for more than 50 years, Fr Jarlath Cunnane.

Fr Cunnane said the outpouring of grief for the prominent and popular bishop is astonishing. He said that flags are at half mast while billboards on one of the main freeways in Los Angeles carry Bishop O’Connell’s photo.

He added that Bishop O’Connell was friends with everyone from “the movers and the shakers to the moved and the shaken”, referring to his connections to the upper echelons of society and his work with vulnerable groups including immigrants and victims of gang crime.

A 61-year-old man, Carlos Medina from Torrance in California, has been charged with his murder and a special allegation that he personally used a firearm during the commission of an offence. He is due back in court on March 22. He is the husband of Bishop O’Connell’s housekeeper.

Bishop O’Connell was found in his home on Hacienda Drive last Saturday after being shot multiple times. A church deacon made the discovery at around 1pm local time after Bishop O’Connell failed to turn up for a meeting.

There was no sign of a forced entry into the house, according to the District Attorney for Los Angeles County, George Gascon.

In a statement on Thursday evening, the Catholic Campaign for Human Development, attached to the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, said Bishop O’Connell had confronted violence, deprivation, poverty, and polarisation.

The statement said: “The sad irony remains that a person so dedicated to peace and non-violence died in such a violent and senseless act. This is yet one more reminder of how pervasive the horror of gun violence has become in our society.” 

It added: “From the beginning of his time as a priest in Los Angeles, Bishop Dave accompanied a community afflicted by gang violence, poverty, broken families, and tensions between community members and local authorities.”

Medina was brought before an arraignment hearing on Wednesday evening at the Foltz Criminal Justice Center in Los Angeles.

At a press conference held by the District Attorney, it emerged that Medina has admitted killing the 69-year-old bishop.

Lieutenant Michael Modica of the Los Angeles County Sherriff's Office said that when interviewed, Medina had given “several different reasons and none of them made any sense to the investigators".