Angelus News | March 24, 2023 | Vol. 8 No. 6

Bishop O’Connell during a talk
at the National Catholic Youth
Conference in Long Beach last
November. | NCYC
A FRIEND of Jesus
Losing Bishop Dave has been tough. His words about
others — and about Christ — can still help us.
BY J.D. LONG-GARCÍA
Just about everyone I knew was
surprised that Msgr. David O’Connell
— a priest working in South
LA — was appointed auxiliary
bishop of Los Angeles.
I heard the news earlier than most. I
was working at The Tidings and Vida
Nueva in 2015, and I was asked to
write about the appointment before
the public announcement. O’Connell
was named auxiliary bishop
along with Msgr. Joseph Brennan and
Father Robert Barron. Of the three,
Bishop Dave was the hardest to reach.
When I finally did reach him, the
first thing he asked was about me and
my family. Bishop Dave didn’t care to
talk about himself much. Frankly, we
wanted to write more about his work
before his appointment, but he didn’t
really cooperate. He always suggested
someone else we should write about.
“It’s been a great privilege, a great
blessing to be given these parishes all
these years, to be a pastor all these
years. The people have touched my
heart the way they are sincere,” he
eventually told me. “They follow
Jesus. … Despite the fact that they are
poor or suffering, they still love their
Catholic parish, and they still help as
much as they can.”
Like so many of you, I was devastated
to hear of Bishop Dave’s murder.
I haven’t stopped thinking about
him, replaying my interactions with
him in my mind and rereading old
stories that quote him. I remember
seeing him in deep conversations
with co-workers at the Archdiocesan
Catholic Center. And the time he
introduced me to Carmelite Father
Tracy O’Sullivan, a retired priest who
was serving in El Salvador when I
interviewed him.
What became clear was Bishop
Dave’s eagerness to talk about the
good work of others. And he sure did
like to talk about Jesus.
He worked alongside community
leaders and law enforcement in various
gang intervention programs. He
also started the SoCal Immigration
Task Force, was the adviser for the
Catholic Men’s Fellowship of California,
and was involved with community
organizing efforts. He visited
inmates in prison and immigrants in
detention.
“When I work for immigrants, work
for the poor, work for prisoners, work
for gang intervention, it’s to help
them know that Jesus cares for them,
34 • ANGELUS • March 24, 2023