Alondra Ruiz had only spoken with the late Auxiliary Bishop David O’Connell a handful of times, but like nearly all who met him, in that brief time she felt his care and dedication just through his presence.
“You could tell he was a man of strong faith who wanted to help and was there for the people out of love,” she said. “He was always kind, appreciative, humble, and he made everyone laugh. I felt the presence of God there.”
O’Connell administered the confirmation for a group at her San Francisco Catholic Church in East L.A., like he did in parishes across the San Gabriel Valley region, where he was the L.A. Archdiocese’s top administrator since 2015.
It was at the East L.A parish where Ruiz, like countless others, first experienced the bishop’s unique ability to connect with almost anyone from any walk of life.
Then came a day many won’t forget, when on Feb. 18 the 69-year-old priest was found shot and killed inside his Hacienda Heights home.
The murder jolted a Roman Catholic community from L.A. to the Vatican. It prompted several days of mourning and memorials leading up to a funeral attended by thousands.
As Christians made their way through Holy Week this week, Catholics across Southern California whose lives were impacted in some way by O’Connell were feeling the void.
On one hand, they are focused on a sacred time in the faith, reflecting on the story of Jesus Christ’s death and resurrection on Easter Sunday. On the other, the man known as “Bishop Dave” — the man who left his native Ireland to immerse himself in a Los Angeles ministry and came to call it home — isn’t physically here, like he always was in his more than 40 years of ministering in L.A. And that reality has lingered in the minds of friends and followers in Easter season.
Outside the St. Joseph Catholic Church in La Puente, just a few miles from O’Connell’s Hacienda Heights neighborhood, parishioners like Edwin Ramirez said they felt his presence during the Good Friday Stations of the Cross service, where the faithful pray and reflect on the Passion story.
“I’m still gutted by it because he was such a shining example of his faith,” Ramirez said. “But he’s still with us in so many ways, especially this week and in these services.”
O’Connell was an interim pastor at St. Joseph’s last summer, where staff and parishioners recall his involvement with the school and confirmation programs there, all in between his ministerial duties as an auxiliary bishop for a massive 66-parish region.
The church still keeps prayer cards with his photo throughout the office as one way of honoring his memory and keeping his spirit alive.
“No matter where he served, he always made people feel like they were special,” Liturgy Director Lilia Garcia said.
It’s that kind of commitment to staying close to the community that made him reluctant to move from priest to bishop, according to Deacon Sergio Perez, fearing it would keep him away from the people who needed him most.
Perez was O’Connell’s regional assistant for the past seven years, helping him manage the operations and logistics of overseeing so many churches, each with their own flock and problems, which allowed him to focus on community work.
“When a priest is struggling they turn to their bishop, when people aren’t happy with their priest, they turn to the bishop. So he’s the local shepherd for the priests and all the parishioners,” he said. “But he didn’t want to deal with leaking roofs and administration and politics and so forth.”
For decades, O’Connell tirelessly crusaded among the marginalized and mistreated as pastor in some of Los Angeles’s most neglected areas, where he earned his reputation as a man of the people and a conduit for solutions. His wit, humor, and a well-grounded, down-to-earth sensibility allowed him to be equally as comfortable talking to people on the street and discussing their problems with the politically connected.
While the emotional wounds of the loss of O’Connell are fresh, the region has entered Holy Week reflecting on the legacy he left, and the example he set. These are amplified at a time of spiritual renewal, in the theme of resurrection, those who knew him said this week.
“He had a tremendous ability to forge longterm relationships with movers and shakers, as well as the moved and shaken,” said his longtime friend and fellow Irish countryman, said the Rev. Jay Cunnane, pastor at St. Cornelius Church in Long Beach.
Cunnane said he had a heart for the suffering and recalled his approach of having house-to-house meetings and eventually block-wide street Masses to make sure he reached those in most need.
“He’d talk to people who would never have the means to get heard, connect them with leaders and turn their pain into community action,” he added.
With the right joke at the right occasion, breaking down barriers or bringing people together just by listening, O’Connell had an unmatched knack for making things happen.
These are the things that people are remembering as they enter Easter, O’Connell’s friends said.
That’s how it felt for Brodie Seagrave, who reached out to O’Connell in 2012 when he was establishing a nonprofit that gave high school students leadership experience by teaching soccer skills to middle and elementary schoolers in underserved communities.
O’Connell connected them with funding partners when he heard about the idea, without even meeting Seagrave. Despite his busy schedule, he would even attend the group’s Thanksgiving dinners years later to show support.
“He was just dedicated to his work and faith and the community and it was an inspiration I still draw from,” he said.
While the memories of O’Connell remained strong during Holy Week, so did the physical tributes.
On Good Friday — the Christian holiday marking the crucifixion of Christ — at the downtown Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels, many came to reflect on the Stations of the Cross, just as they did back at St. Joseph church in La Puente. On March 3, this very cathedral was filled with thousands for O’Connell’s funeral.
On Friday, inside a quiet chapel in one of the niches at the Cathedral, personal items from O’Connell’s life remained on display in an exhibit. Parishioners perused, studying the artifacts of a life devoted to the priesthood, but one also accompanied with humor and devotion to the poor.
It was a bookend to a Holy Week that started with another tribute: an 80-foot sawdust carpet running down the center aisle of Our Lady of Grace Church in Encino. It was a colorful artwork, inspired by traditional Central American “alfombras,” depicting eight different scenes from the bishop’s life.
It’s a memory very much alive, even amid the pain of loss, said Perez, the deacon back at St. Joseph Catholic Church in La Puente.
At this week’s Chrism Mass, where the clergy reconfirm their faith, Perez said the attendance nearly doubled to more than 500, which he attributed to O’Connell’s impact.
At the service, Archbishop José Gomez acknowledged O’Connell’s passing, calling him a “priest’s priest” who cared for the salvation of every soul, and noted it was the first one without him in any of their memories.
“For the priests, it was a big hit, personally and professionally,” Perez said. “He was their shepherd.”
Source: Orange County Register
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