In his last homily at Los Angeles’s cathedral before he was murdered, Bishop Dave O’Connell talked about Mary, the mother of Jesus — and a pilgrimage we led together to the Marian shrines Fátima in Portugal and Lourdes, France. The Los Angeles auxiliary recalled weeping in Lourdes. His own mother had died two decades before, and for the first time since he last visited her in his native Ireland, he said, he felt the loving welcome of a mother.
He wept because he felt deeply. Specifically, he had a heart for the vulnerable. News reports have talked about his work with gang members and prisoners. He was an instrument of peace and conversion. Because he was so approachable — and persistent — he himself was able to issue the kind of welcome all Christians would if we lived what Jesus Christ taught during His Sermon on the Mount.
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