An Irish bishop has been killed in a shooting in the United States.
Bishop David O'Connell was shot dead in a house in Los Angeles, California on Saturday. Reports say O'Connell, 69, was shot in the upper torso.
LA police has launched an investigation into the shooting, NBC Los Angeles reports. O'Connell, who was originally from Cork but studied for the priesthood at All Hallows College in Dublin, had served as a priest and bishop in LA for over 45 years and had been named an auxiliary bishop for the Archdiocese of Los Angeles by Pope Francis in 2015, Cork Beo reports.
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He still had family in his hometown of Glanmire in Cork. Los Angeles Archbishop José H. Gomez said O'Connell was "a peacemaker with a heart for the poor and the immigrant and a passion for building a community where the sanctity and dignity of every human life was honoured and protected,”
“He was also a good friend, and I will miss him greatly." O'Connell had made it a mission to reach out to some of the most violent gangs in the LA area and was well-known in the community.
When he was made an auxiliary bishop, O'Connell said "I've always thought that the Catholic parish is the real player in making life better for the people in these areas. To do that well, we have to cooperate with the sheriff or the police or anybody else that we can to help combat violence and make the situation better for the people in these areas... The greatest joy of my life is being a pastor,
"It is a privilege to be part of people’s lives, especially in their time of suffering and need," he told Catholic Ireland, "I think our parishes and schools are powerful instruments of transformation of people’s lives and of neighbourhoods."
Archbishop José H. Gomez has asked for prayers for the bishop's many friends, parishioners and family in Ireland.
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