Pope Francis Finally Responds to Murder of Bishop

Pope Francis has issued a long-anticipated statement of prayer and condolences through a telegram sent Thursday to Los Angeles Archbishop Jose H. Gomez as funerals are held throughout the week for slain Auxiliary Bishop David O’Connell.

Thirteen days ago, O’Connell was murdered in his suburban Los Angeles home with “at least one” gunshot wound to his upper chest. Two days after a deacon found O’Connell, L.A. County Sheriff Robert Luna announced citizen tips had led to the arrest of 61-year-old Carlos Medina, the husband of the Bishop’s housekeeper.

The Catholic community throughout the L.A. Archdiocese was at a loss; its Archbishop was overwhelmed with grief during a press conference representing the many who formed prayer vigils outside the late bishop’s home.

“Deeply saddened to learn of the untimely and tragic death of Auxiliary Bishop David O’Connell, his Holiness Pope Francis sends heartfelt condolences to you, the clergy, religious and lay faithful of the Archdiocese,” said Cardinal Pietro Parolin in a statement on behalf of Pope Francis.

“He joins you in giving thanks for Bishop O’Connell’s years of devoted priestly and Episcopal ministry to the church in Los Angeles, marked especially by his profound concern for the poor, immigrants and those in need, his efforts to uphold the sanctity and dignity of God’s gift of life and his zeal for fostering solidarity, cooperation and peace within the local community.”

“To those gathered for the mass of Christian burial and to all who mourn Bishop O’Connell’s loss in the sure hope of the resurrection, the Holy Father cordially imparts his blessing as a pledge of peace and consolation in the Lord,” the statement continued.

Accompanying the grief, however, was the noted silence from Pope Francis, whose comments during his Wednesday Audience and Sunday Angelus focused on many tragic circumstances throughout the world—including a shipwreck of migrants off the coast of Italy, terrorist attacks in the Holy Land and Burkina Faso and the ongoing war in Ukraine—but not the shooting death of one of his own.

With the slow trickle of information from law enforcement and the years of press coverage over sex abuse and financial corruption scandals, many took to social media to express a mix of grief, shock, and speculation about the motives behind a daytime killing of a U.S. Catholic Bishop.

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