Clarence Kelly

Not to be confused with the former Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Clarence M. Kelley.

His Excellency, the Most Reverend

Clarence Kelly
Superior General of the Society of Saint Pius V
Installed1983
Term endedDecember 2, 2023
PredecessorOffice established
SuccessorWilliam Jenkins[1]
Other post(s)Founder of the Congregation of Saint Pius V
Orders
OrdinationApril 14, 1973
by Marcel Lefebvre
ConsecrationOctober 19, 1993
by Alfredo Méndez-Gonzalez
Personal details
Born
Clarence James Kelly

November 23, 1941 (1941-11-23)
New York City, U.S.
DiedDecember 2, 2023 (2023-12-03) (aged 82)
DenominationCatholic
Ordination history of
Clarence Kelly
History
Priestly ordination
Ordained byMarcel Lefebvre
DateApril 14, 1973
PlaceThe International Seminary of Saint Pius X, Écône, Switzerland
Episcopal consecration
Consecrated byAlfredo Méndez-Gonzalez
DateOctober 19, 1993
PlaceCarlsbad, California, U.S.
Episcopal succession
Bishops consecrated by Clarence Kelly as principal consecrator
Joseph SantayFebruary 28, 2007
Styles of
Clarence Kelly
Reference style
Spoken styleYour Excellency
Religious styleBishop

Clarence James Kelly SSPV (November 23, 1941 – December 2, 2023)[2] was an American Traditionalist Catholic bishop. He was a co-founder of the Society of Saint Pius V and the founder of the Congregation of Saint Pius V.

Kelly was a sedevacantist,[3] who was excommunicated from the Catholic Church for his traditionalist views and practices.[4]

Early life

Clarence James Kelly was born on November 23, 1941, in Brooklyn, New York to Clair (née Bonar) and Edward Kelly.[2] He joined the United States Air Force in 1959. Clarence Kelly joined a seminary in Pennsylvania in 1964 and completed his novitiate year in 1966–1967.[5]

Kelly attended the Catholic University of America between 1967 and 1969 where he studied philosophy.[2] He began his theology studies in 1969 at the Seminary of the Immaculate Conception in Huntington, New York.[2][5]

Priesthood

Society of Saint Pius X (SSPX)

In 1971, Clarence Kelly joined the Society of Saint Pius X (SSPX) Seminary at Écône, Switzerland.[5] On April 24, 1973, in Écône, Kelly was ordained a priest for the Society by Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre.[6] After his ordination, he returned to the United States and undertook some speaking engagements for the John Birch Society.[7] He eventually became the superior of the SSPX's North-East district of the United States.

Society of Saint Pius V (SSPV)

Archbishop Lefebvre directed the SSPX's priests to follow the 1962 liturgical books. Fr Kelly and eight other American priests refused to do this. On April 27, 1983, these nine priests, along with some seminarians who were sympathetic to them, were expelled from the SSPX by Lefebvre for their refusal to use the 1962 Missal and for other reasons, such as their resistance to Lefebvre's order that priests of the SSPX must accept the decrees of nullity handed down by diocesan marriage tribunals and their disapproval of the SSPX's policy of accepting into the society new members who had been ordained to the priesthood according to the revised sacramental rites of Paul VI.

Almost immediately, these priests, with Kelly as their leader, formed the Society of Saint Pius V[7] (SSPV), which held that it is at least a debatable question whether the popes since 1958 have been legitimate Roman Pontiffs.[7] The Society does not believe that it has the right to decide the question of sedevacantism definitively, but believes that "those who presently are thought to be occupying hierarchical positions in the Catholic Church are acting, for the most part, as though they do not have the Faith, according to all human means of judging".[8] They reject any changes to the Mass (including changes made to the Holy Week Ceremonies by Pope Pius XII in 1955), and adhere to the preconciliar Code of Canon Law.[8] Kelly was replaced by Father Richard Williamson as the superior of the SSPX's North-East district of the United States.[9]

In part due to Kelly's rejection of the validity of sedevacantist bishops consecrated by or in the lineage of Bishop Ngô Đình Thục, some of the original priests of the SSPV, such as Father Daniel Dolan, Father Anthony Cekada, Father Donald Sanborn, and Father Thomas Zapp, broke away from the society.

In 1984, Kelly purchased a former Catskills resort in Round Top, New York, and established St. Joseph's Novitiate. There he also founded the Daughters of Mary, Mother of Our Savior, a congregation of religious sisters.[10]

Lengthy litigation followed the expulsion of Kelly and others from the SSPX over the disposition of property and churches.[11] In 1985, Kelly, Cekada, Dolan, and Sanborn sued Schmidberger, Williamson, Bolduc, and others related to the SSPX for libel.[12]

Episcopacy

On October 19, 1993, in Carlsbad, California, Kelly was consecrated a bishop by Bishop Alfredo Méndez-Gonzalez, the retired Bishop of Arecibo, Puerto Rico.[6][7][13]

In 1996, Kelly founded the Congregation of Saint Pius V[6] (not to be confused with the Society of Saint Pius V, which he co-founded earlier), a Society of Common Life for priests and coadjutor brothers.

On February 28, 2007, he consecrated Father Joseph Santay, CSPV, as a bishop.[14] On December 27, 2018, Kelly served as the co-consecrator in Santay's episcopal consecration of Father James Carroll, CSPV.[15]

Personal life and death

Kelly resided at Immaculate Heart Seminary.[6] He died on December 2, 2023, at the age of 82.[16] A Solemn Pontifical Requiem Mass was celebrated for the repose of his soul in the chapel of St. Pius V in Melville, New York, on December 6. His funeral, in the form of a Solemn High Requiem Mass, was celebrated on December 7 in St. Joseph's Novitiate Chapel in Round Top, New York, after which he was buried in the nearby cemetery.[2]

Books

  • Conspiracy against God and Man[17]
  • The Sacred and the Profane
  • The Case of Fr. Leonard Feeney

References

  1. ^ "The Bulletin of the Society of St. Pius V - September 2024" (PDF). www.dropbox.com. Retrieved October 9, 2024.
  2. ^ a b c d e "Obituary of The Most Reverend Clarence J. Kelly | Dufresne & Cavanaugh Funeral Home". dufresneandcavanaugh.com. Retrieved March 5, 2024.
  3. ^ Historical Tidbit: Sedevacantism Debate with SSPV Clergy and Indult Traditionalists (c 1995). Novus Ordo Watch. January 2, 2024. Retrieved June 1, 2025 – via YouTube. ...with regard to the status of John Paul II, in my opinion, I do not think that he is the vicar of Christ. (Clarence Kelly)
  4. ^ Burger, John (May 1, 2001). "Splinter Catholics Have It Their Way". Crisis Magazine. Retrieved May 31, 2025.
  5. ^ a b c "Rebel Priests". What Catholics Believe. Society of St. Pius V. February 27, 2014. Retrieved April 19, 2022 – via YouTube.
  6. ^ a b c d "The Most Reverend Clarence Kelly". About Us. Congregation of Saint Pius V. Archived from the original on September 5, 2022. Retrieved September 5, 2022.
  7. ^ a b c d Cuneo, Michael W., The Smoke of Satan: Conservative and Traditionalist Dissent in Contemporary American Catholicism, JHU Press, 1999, p. 96ISBN 9780801862656
  8. ^ a b The Roman Catholic Association, Inc (1988). "Statement of Principles" (PDF). St. Pius V Chapel.
  9. ^ Ruby, Griff (2002). "Chapter Nine, The Advance of the Sedevacantists". Resurrection of the Roman Catholic Church. iUniverse.
  10. ^ Goldman, Ari L., "A Fight Over an Ex-Nun's Mind and Soul", The New York Times, August 11, 1988
  11. ^ Fundamentalisms Observed, Volume 1, (Martin E. Marty and R. Scott Appleby, eds.) University of Chicago Press, 1994, p. 133, n. 81ISBN 9780226508788
  12. ^ "Kelly v. Schmidberger", 12 Media L. Rep. 1297, 1299 (S.D.N.Y. 1985)
  13. ^ "Photo Essay on the Consecration Bishop Clarence Kelly" (PDF). The Roman Catholic (Special Edition). Cinncinati, Ohio: The Roman Catholic Association: 20–22. 2019.
  14. ^ Video of the episcopal consecration of Bishop Joseph Santay. Congregation of St. Pius V – via YouTube.
  15. ^ Video of the episcopal consecration of Bishop James Carroll, CSPV. Congregation of St. Pius V – via YouTube.
  16. ^ "Sedevacantist Bishop Clarence Kelly, R.I.P. (1941-2023)". Novus Ordo Watch. December 2, 2023. Retrieved December 3, 2023.
  17. ^ Kelly, Clarence (1997). "Conspiracy against God and Man" (PDF). Seminary Press. Retrieved September 5, 2022.

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