The shooting of Auxiliary Bishop David O’Connell sent shockwaves through the Roman Catholic community, and now with a confession from the killer, Catholics can focus their attention on grieving and healing at one of several memorial and funeral services announced Thursday, Feb. 23, by the Archdiocese of Los Angeles.
Official funeral services will begin with a 7 p.m. memorial Mass at O’Connell’s parish, St. John Vianney Catholic Church in Hacienda Heights, on Wednesday, March 1.
Then on Thursday, March 2, there will be a public viewing from 10 a.m. to noon and from 1 p.m. to 6 p.m. at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels in Downtown Los Angeles. This will be followed by a vigil Mass at 7 p.m.
Services will conclude with an 11 a.m. Friday, March 3 funeral Mass also at the Cathedral. All three masses will be streamed at lacatholics.org/bishop-connell and the Downtown services will also be streamed at youtube.com/olacathedral.
These services will be led by Archbishop of Los Angeles Jose Gomez, who described O’Connell as “man of deep prayer who had a great love for Our Blessed Mother … a peacemaker with a heart for the poor and the immigrant.”
His untimely death devastated Los Angeles’ Catholic community, which has been praying for his soul since news of his killing first broke on Saturday, Feb. 18
Father Albert Avenido of Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Covina leads a prayer service on Sunday in memory of LA Bishop David O’Connell, who was killed nearby on Saturday, Feb. 18, 2023 in Hacienda Heights.(Photo by Axel Koester, Contributing Photographer)
This began with vigils at the memorial outside of his Hacienda Heights home and continued with memorial prayer services and nightly novenas — a nine-day period of prayer, typically done to honor, mourn, and pray for the dead.
On Monday, the novenas migrated to St. John Vianney’s due to safety concerns over large groups gathering at the memorial. The Knights of Columbus will continue leading the novena with a bilingual rosary prayer for the soul of Bishop O’Connell every evening at 6 p.m. until Feb. 27.
On Thursday, a rain storm set the somber tone to an evening of grieving for many Catholics in the San Gabriel Valley area, as they prepared for night five of the novenas at St. John’s Vianney’s followed by a special remembrance mass.
Related links
Man admits to killing bishop in Hacienda Heights, DA says, and is charged with murder
Mourners remember Bishop David O’Connell in Hacienda Heights
Husband of Catholic Bishop David O’Connell’s housekeeper accused of killing him
LA bishop’s death is being investigated as a murder, sheriff’s officials say
Bishop’s killing shocks San Gabriel Valley communities already shaken from mass shooting