Illinois diocese halts St. Jude relic tour amid ‘incident’ involving priest, students

Bishop David O’Connell leads a non-denominational memorial service to provide a space for community members who have lost loved ones in 2020 at the St. Cornelius Catholic Church in Long Beach, California, on Nov. 14, 2020. / Apu Gomes/AFP via Getty Images)

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Feb 19, 2023 / 13:47 pm (CNA).

The shooting death of Los Angeles Auxiliary Bishop David G. O’Connell Saturday is being investigated as a homicide, authorities have confirmed.

“This incident is being handled as a murder investigation,” the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department (LASD) said in a statement Sunday. No additional details were released.

“We learned early this morning from the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s office that they have determined that the death of Auxiliary Bishop David O’Connell yesterday was a homicide. We are deeply disturbed and saddened by this news,” Los Angeles Archbishop José Gomez said in a statement Sunday. 

“Let us continue to pray for Bishop Dave and his family. And let us pray for law enforcement officials as they continue their investigation into this terrible crime,” Gomez added. “We ask Our Blessed Mother Mary to intercede and be a mother for all of us in this moment of sadness and pain.”

The shooting happened around 1 p.m. local time Saturday inside a home in the 1500 block of Janlu Avenue in Hacienda Heights, Los Angeles County, the sheriff’s department said. Property records show an address on that block as being associated with O’Connell, but CNA could not immediately confirm local media reports that identified the location as O’Connell’s residence.

Sheriff deputies called to the scene for a medical emergency found O’Connell suffering from a gunshot wound to his torso. He was pronounced dead at the scene, the LASD said.

A native of Ireland, O’Connell, 69, ministered to immigrants, the poor, and victims of gang violence for 45 years in the South Los Angeles area. Pope Francis made him a bishop in 2015.

O’Connell’s friends and fellow bishops reacted with shock and sadness to the news of his death.

Among those to comment on social media was Bishop Robert Barron of Winona-Rochester, Minnesota, who was ordained an auxiliary bishop of Los Angeles with O’Connell in 2015.

“From the moment I met him, I was struck by his goodness, kindness, prayerfulness, and simplicity of heart,” Barron tweeted.

“Throughout the course of my years in the LA Archdiocese, Bishop Dave was a constant source of support, encouragement, and good humor,” Barron continued.

“He dedicated his priesthood to serving the poor. I can honestly say that he was one of the most Christ-like men I’ve known. May he rest in peace.”

Linda Dakin-Grimm, an immigration lawyer in California, tweeted a photo of O’Connell with one of her young clients.

“Bishop Dave, who was shot to death in his home today, was there for every child and family I have represented. Always,” she tweeted. “Helping, supporting and generally being the face of Jesus for me and many many others.”

Sister Norma Pimentel, the director of Catholic Charities of Rio Grande Valley known for her work with migrants on the Texas-Mexico border, also shared a photo of O’Connell on Twitter, calling him “truly a man of God.”

The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department posted a statement on Facebook Sunday addressed to the grieving South LA community. “We can only imagine how the community is suffering because of this senseless murder. Bishop O’Connell was a guiding light for so many, and his legacy will continue to live on through the community that he helped build,” the statement said.

“Please know that you are not alone in your grief and that @lasdhq is here to support you. Our thoughts and prayers are with you, and we are working diligently to seek those responsible.”

Anyone with information about this incident is encouraged to contact the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department’s Homicide Bureau at (323) 890-5500.

Those who prefer to provide information anonymously may call “Crime Stoppers” by dialing (800) 222-TIPS (8477), use their smartphone by downloading the “P3 Tips” Mobile APP on Google Play or the Apple App Store, or by using the website http://lacrimestoppers.org.

[…]

Kansas City, Mo., May 3, 2018 / 03:04 am (CNA/EWTN News).- A newly-released album by a chart-topping community of Benedictine nuns in rural Missouri is devoted to the hearts of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, but is dedicated in a particular way to Saint Joseph’s paternity.

“St. Joseph has shown himself a father to us very poignantly in recent months, both spiritually and temporally, so this CD is our little votive to his paternal heart,” Mother Cecilia, prioress of the Benedictines of Mary, Queen of Apostles, told CNA.

The Hearts of Jesus, Mary & Joseph at Ephesus was released to coincide with the May 1 feast of St. Joseph the Worker. Funds from the sale of the album will support the construction of the expanding community’s priory church, which has $2 million remaining.

The album can be purchased from the nuns’ website at https://music.benedictinesofmary.org/ or at Amazon. Digital copies are available from iTunes.

Construction of the priory church.

Mother Cecilia reflected that “Devotion to the Pure Heart of St. Joseph seems to be burgeoning in popular piety as connected with the Two Hearts. While there have not yet been official approbations of its explicit revelations … there is nevertheless a strong case in favor of this general devotion especially in the addresses of out recent popes.”

“The heart being the symbol of love and of conformity to the Divine Will, and St. Joseph being the patron of the Universal Church, it seems an apt devotion especially in our times amidst a crisis of fatherhood.”

She added that the theme of the album was suggested by Cardinal Raymond Burke, prefect emeritus of the Apostolic Signatura, who was leading a retreat at the priory.

The cardinal “asked about a recording, to which I replied that we had thought of doing one in honor of the Sacred and Immaculate Hearts, but were torn since we had also promised one to St. Joseph,” Mother Cecilia recounted. “His Eminence turned to us and said simply, ‘You know what you should do is one to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, the Immaculate Heart of Mary, and the most Pure Heart of St. Joseph.’ The Sisters spontaneously broke into applause at the direct answer to the dilemma.”

The album includes 22 tracks, eight of which are original pieces.

One of the original compositions, “Hymn to the Three Hearts”, is by a guest composer, Lisa Nardi, who was introduced to the community’s music through her classical radio station, WQXR. The song includes lyrics written by the sisters at the priory.

“She was so taken by what she heard, that she reached out to us with a proposition to compose a piece for a future recording,” explained Mother Cecilia. “We happily took her up on her kind offer after hearing some of her other works, which were beautiful.”

The Sacred Heart of Jesus, being the oldest of the three devotions – revealed to St. Margaret Mary Alacoque in the 1670s – included on the album, has a great deal of music dedicated to it, the prioress said.

“We had a hard time narrowing down which songs to do. We included our originals, ‘For Love of Me’ and ‘The Heart of the Infant King.’ The lyrics of the former was actually a poem by St. Alphonsus, and the latter by one of our Sisters, who had just read the writings of Mother Louise Margaret de la Touche, author of The Sacred Heart and the Priesthood. We included a hymn by the great American champion of Gregorian chant, Dr. Theodore Marier, who wrote a very moving hymn to the Sacred Heart in his days at Manhattanville, and the well-known ‘Cor Dulce’ with propers of the Mass.”

Hymns to the Immaculate Heart of Mary “were a little more sparse,” she said. Among those chosen for inclusion on the album is “I Am Thine”, an original which has been sung at profession and investitures at the priory, “so it is very much beloved by our community.” The ‘Sub Tuum’ “was a challenging piece by Charpentier,” a French baroque composer. It is one of the community’s “first ventures” into music of that era, “but one we enjoyed very much.”

“We had an original, ‘The Blessed Heart,’ written 2006 in memory of a seventeen-year-old young lady who was to join us, but suffered a stroke shortly before her entrance at the age of seventeen,” Mother Cecilia added.

Mother Cecilia said the nuns “were a little dismayed by the generally narrow repertoire of Hymns to St. Joseph, especially songs that mentioned his heart, so sought to remedy the situation!”

The community has sung the “Hymn to St. Joseph” every Wednesday since 2007. And “Blessed Be St. Joseph” is an “entirely new piece,” the chorus of which was inspired by the invitatory for the feast of St. Joseph. The song’s verses “came from Fr. Olier’s prayer quoted by St. Peter Julian Eymard in his Month of St. Joseph,” Mother Cecilia explained. “Fr. Olier had a profound influence on St. Louis Marie de Montfort, and it was really a delight to set such beautiful words to new music.”

Life in the community is marked by obedience, stability, and “continually turning” towards God. They have Mass daily according to the extraordinary form, and chant the psalms eight times a day from the 1962 Monastic Office.

The nuns also support themselves by producing made-to-order vestments, as well as greeting cards.

Though the community practices limited enclosure, their music albums have brought them international renown and popularity – they have been Billboard’s Best-Selling Classical Traditional Artist several years in a row, and their albums have topped Billboard’s Top Traditional Classical Albums.

Sales of The Hearts of Jesus, Mary & Joseph at Ephesus will support construction of the priory church, which was begun in May 2017, and is due to be completed in September.

“In two short years, we have been blessed to raise $4 million dollars in funding, but we still have about $2 million left to go,” Mother Cecilia said. “We have great confidence that St. Joseph, to whom we entrusted the entire project, will see it through to the end, inspiring souls to assist us in raising this last amount.”

[…]

USCCB President Archbishop Timothy Broglio speaks at the bishops’ spring meeting, Thursday, June 13, 2024 / USCCB

Louisville, Ky., Jun 14, 2024 / 08:00 am (CNA).

The president of the U.S. bishops’ conference, in a speech to his fellow bishops gathered in Louisville, Kentucky for their spring meeting, discoursed on the subject of the incompatibility of “sex change” with the teachings of the Catholic Church.

In his speech to kick off the meeting, Archbishop Timothy Broglio, who serves as Archbishop for the Military Services and is president of Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), reflected on the war in the Holy Land, the migrant crisis, the National Eucharistic Congress, and the persecution of the Church in Nicaragua, among other issues. 

The largest portion of his address, however, was devoted to a catechesis on the subject of the dignity of the body, with the prelate citing Pope Francis’ recent declaration on gender ideology, and referring specifically to the issue of “sex change.”

Broglio’s remarks come less than a month after news broke that a woman identifying as a man had attended seminary and was living a religious vocation as a male hermit in Kentucky, with the apparent approval of Bishop John Stowe, who leads the Diocese of Lexington.

In his speech to the bishops, Broglio quoted heavily from Pope Francis and his recent document on gender theory.

“We are grateful for the recent declaration Dignitas Infinita from the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith. There we read a clear message about many issues that plague our times. In particular, ‘Regarding gender theory, whose scientific coherence is the subject of considerable debate among experts, the Church recalls that human life in all its dimensions, both physical and spiritual, is a gift from God,’” he said.

“‘This gift is to be accepted with gratitude and placed at the service of the good. Desiring a personal self-determination, as gender theory prescribes, apart from this fundamental truth that human life is a gift, amounts to a concession to the age-old temptation to make oneself God, entering into competition with the true God of love revealed to us in the Gospel,’” Broglio quoted from the Vatican document.

Broglio also cited the the “Catechism of the Catholic Church,” saying it “expressly invites us to recognize that ‘the human body shares in the dignity of ‘the image of God.’”

“Such a truth deserves to be remembered, especially when it comes to sex change, for humans are inseparably composed of both body and soul,” Broglio said.

He concluded his discourse quoting from Pope Francis again on the dignity of the human body.

“Teaching about the need to respect the natural order of the human person, Pope Francis affirmed that ‘creation is prior to us and must be received as a gift. At the same time, we are called to protect our humanity, and this means, in the first place, accepting it and respecting it as it was created…”

At a press conference at the conclusion of the first day of the meeting, Broglio fielded a question about his speech. 

Asked whether the closed door sessions during the bishops’ meeting had included any discussions of the transgender hermit in the Diocese of Lexington and possible implications for action by the conference, Broglio said the subject had come up at the “committee levels.”

“There certainly hasn’t been any discussion in the general assembly of the bishops. There is concern that has been expressed at some of the committee levels because of the nature of what hermetic life is in the Church and also the preparation necessary for that,” Broglio said.

“And also it’s just the general honesty that should be a part of that whole process of determining a vocation and responding to that vocation. At this point, that’s basically where the discussion is,” he said.

[…]