Priest Takes His Place Beside Family Yet Again

He baptized Jenifer as a baby and said the sacrament of marriage when she and Michael became husband and wife. Just a few months ago, he baptized their new son. And Wednesday, he said the funeral Mass for the man she loved.

Msgr. Thomas O’Connell, who has known Jenifer Clark since her infancy, spoke before nearly 1,000 people in a packed St. Jude’s Catholic Church in Westlake Village on Wednesday and to the hundreds more who sat outside and listened to the service.

O’Connell said he had prayed the night before for inspiration, for the right words to say to the mourners--something that would help them lift their thoughts out of their grief and look to God for solace.

“You’re hoping and praying you can bring a little comfort and consolation to the family,” he said the night before the service. But, he added, “the Holy Spirit will inspire us, I’m sure.”

Few in attendance would have doubted that it did.

O’Connell, 75, who retired last month after 50 years as a priest, came back for this service with a full and deep voice, one that kept its melodic tone even as he stood over the casket of slain Simi Valley Police Officer Michael Frederick Clark.

“This is the will of the one who sent me,” said the Lord, O’Connell read from the liturgy.

At the funeral Mass, O’Connell told the mourners of Michael Clark’s compassion, bravery and love for his family. He called him a “mountain of a man, dedicated to decency and fairness.”

“The power of God be with all of you, and especially with 5-month-old Bayley,” he said, speaking of the couple’s infant son.

O’Connell said the death of the 28-year-old Clark, who was shot in the line of duty Friday, is “very, very tragic.”

“They had everything going for them, Michael and Jenifer, with a beautiful little youngster,” the monsignor said. “There were a lot of dreams unfulfilled.”

O’Connell recalled only two other funeral Masses that touched him as deeply. He said the Mass for four young Los Angeles County men whose plane crashed on an outing to Santa Barbara recently and for Westlake nurse Kellie O’Sullivan, who was kidnaped and murdered in 1993.

“She was very close to me, too,” he said of his former parishioner. “They filled the church for her.”

Born in Tipperary, Ireland, one of four children in a farming family, O’Connell was ordained in Waterford, Ireland, when he was 25.

He came to California in 1946, working for parishes in Long Beach, Monrovia and Manhattan Beach before he was sent to St. Jude’s in July, 1970.

He was the founding pastor and nurtured the parish from an original 120 families to 3,500 families today. He also founded the parish school, which 320 children now attend.

Ten years ago, O’Connell was elevated to monsignor. Last month, he celebrated his 25th anniversary at St. Jude’s and his 75th birthday. In June, he marked half a century as a priest, his golden jubilee.

“So we have a little bit of silver, a little gold and a little platinum,” he said.

People who work with the monsignor characterize him as a very loving and giving man.

“He is very generous with his time,” said Marie Marrewa, a staff member who has worked with him for 15 years. “He is always available to anyone who needs him, a very loving man.”

Aloysius Caffrey, one of two deacons at the parish, said O’Connell is extremely dedicated.

“He has always taken care of the sick and the needy and the homeless,” Caffrey said. “When a phone rings in the middle of the night and there has been an accident on the freeway, the first one to the hospital is the monsignor, to console and bring them the sacrament of the sick. He is a man of the people.”