December 5, 2006
Keyser, West VirginiaBorn May 7, 1918, in Providence, R.I., he was a son of the late James C. and Julia (Hanlon) Kelly.
Mr. Kelly was a graduate of Providence College, Northeastern School of Law. He was a member of the Church of the Assumption.
Surviving are his wife, Anna (Beier) Kelly; a stepson, Thomas L. Campbell and wife, Becki, of Safety Harbor, Fla.; a stepdaughter, Cynthia Wilkins and husband, Dutch, of Keyser; and numerous relatives in Rhode Island.
At Mr. Kelly's request, his body will be cremated and there will be no public viewing.
A Memorial Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated at the Church of the Assumption, Keyser, on Saturday, Dec. 9, at 10 a.m. with Fr. Ivan M. Lebar, T.O.R. as celebrant.
Private inurnment will be in St. Thomas Columbarium, Keyser.
A letter to the Providence Visitor
Bishop Kelly, rest in peace
Editor:
When the Second Vatican Council was first called by Pope John XXIII, America magazine interviewed several American bishops on their expectations of the ecumenical event. Providence Bishop Russell J. McVinney ventured these memorable words: "I don't envision the council making many changes. We've had a flourishing institution for 2,000 years, and, as the saying goes, 'Why break up a winning team?'"
If the truth be known, the council didn't make many changes. But others in the church ran with the ball, to continue the athletic metaphor, and scored a touchdown for liberalism, relativism and even indifferentism.
Sadly caught up in the post-council enthusiasm for social change was the former Auxiliary Bishop of Providence, Bishop Bernard M. Kelly, word of whose death was recently received from West Virginia. Bishop McVinney passed from this world shortly after Bishop Kelly passed from the episcopacy. An Italian bishop visiting the bishop's residence at Watch Hill said Bishop McVinney died of a broken heart. Perhaps Bishop Kelly left the episcopacy also with a broken heart. The true thoughts of these men are now lost to history, but their contributions to this diocese are still being felt - and even appreciated.
Then-Father Kelly was my Latin teacher at La Salle Academy during 1955-56. He was a dedicated and focused priest, as unworldly as he was other-worldly. When I arrived at Our Lady of Providence Seminary, Warwick Neck, in 1958, Father Kelly was there as spiritual director for the college-age seminarians. Again, his spirituality and detachment were quietly evident. He would never accept a stipend for a Mass. He told us that he had taken a private vow of poverty. He also kept bees at that time, on a distant spot on the seminary property. Yet, he was not only pious; he could also be practical. I recall going to him once about three-quarters of the way through the school year for my quarterly spiritual direction and telling him that I didn't seem to have my initial enthusiasm for prayer and spiritual reading. He paused for a moment and then asked soberly, "Did you ever hear of Spring fever?"
Father Kelly was nominated to become Bishop Kelly while I was a student at St. Bernard Seminary in Rochester, N.Y. We were graciously allowed to return for his consecration in January 1964 - a gracious gesture indeed in those no-nonsense seminary days. His elevation to the episcopacy was a total but pleasant surprise for us students who always looked upon bishops as church administrators rather than as spiritual advisors. His elevation was probably even more of a surprise for the Chancery and seminary staffs of that era who were anxious to exchange their biretta for a miter.
Bishop Kelly's most significant contribution to my life, of course, was the priestly ordination that he conferred upon me and six classmates at the Cathedral of SS. Peter & Paul on June 4, 1966. The cathedral's main altar had not been turned around yet and the canon was still recited in Latin. Sad to say, Father Charles P. Quinn and I are the only two of the seven still in the active priesthood.
The tenure of Bishop Kelly's episcopacy was brief, lasting 1964-71. They were memorable but turbulent years. The church after the Vatican Council underwent what historian John Kenneth Galbraith termed "the greatest sociological displacement of our time." The government was concerned with civil rights and civil unrest, with assassinations and war. Society was dealing with sex, drugs and rock and roll. In a recent biography of Pope Benedict XVI, author Stephen Mansfield described this era during which the pope-to-be was teaching at Tubingen University: "Once the church moved toward change, engines of rebellion rumbled from within and drove reform toward virtual revolution. (Cardinal Joseph) Ratzinger believed it had all gone too far, that the needed gentle reforms had been hijacked by a harsher agenda."
Apparently Bishop Kelly did not think that reforms had gone far enough. In June 1971, the priests of the diocese received a letter informing us of his departure from the active ministry. His absence from diocesan church life was complete. Few of us ever saw him again.
Our youthful experience of a prayerful, reflective, humble spiritual director was a genuine guide to our own spiritual maturity. Our later experience of a discouraged, departing prelate was an equally genuine lesson in the fragility of grace. May he and so many others who lost patience with the renewal of the church rest finally in peace.
Father John A. Kiley
Pastor
St. Francis of Assisi Church
Warwick, RI
©2006 The Providence Visitor
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Bernard M. Kelly
Former bishop who resigned over war, other issues, dies at 88
By CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE
Bernard M. Kelly, who resigned as a bishop and priest in 1971 over
what he saw as the U.S. Catholic hierarchy's failure to adapt to the
reforms of the Second Vatican Council and to speak out strongly
against the Vietnam War, died Dec. 5 in Keyser, W.Va., at the age of
88.
Franciscan Fr. Ivan M. Lebar celebrated a funeral Mass for Kelly Dec.
9 at the Church of the Assumption in Keyser. He was cremated and
inurned at St. Thomas Columbarium in Keyser.
Kelly is survived by his wife, the former Anna Beier; a stepson and
stepdaughter and their spouses; and numerous relatives in Rhode
Island.
At the time of his resignation June 14, 1971, Kelly had been an
auxiliary bishop in Providence, R.I., for seven years. He later
married and worked as an attorney in Rhode Island and West Virginia.
Ellen M. O'Hara, chancellor of the Wheeling-Charleston diocese, said
Dec. 12 that Kelly was reconciled with the Catholic church "10 to 12
years ago" and "died a faithful member" of the Church of the
Assumption.
As a bishop, Kelly was active in the fledgling ecumenical movement,
and was one of the first Catholic bishops to speak before a Protestant
congregation when he preached at the Beneficent Congregational Church
in Providence in 1965.
In February 1971, at the height of a U.S. air and artillery campaign
in Laos to support a South Vietnamese ground offensive, then-Bishop
Kelly called it "scandalous that churchmen are so concerned about
abortion and yet have nothing to say about destruction of human life
in Laos." He was commenting after a guest sermon by Fr. Raymond L.
Tetreault at Our Lady of Mercy Church in Providence triggered a
walkout by about 65 parishioners.
The priest had said members of the congregation who believed the
Vietnam War was unjust should tell their sons not to cooperate with
the military draft. Some parishioners reportedly later called the
media to accuse the priest of being a communist.
The next month Kelly and now-retired Auxiliary Bishop Thomas J.
Gumbleton of Detroit joined an interreligious campaign called "Set the
Date Now," which urged Congress and President Richard M. Nixon to end
all direct and indirect U.S. military involvement in Southeast Asia by
Dec. 31, 1971.
Announcing his resignation that June, Kelly said his fellow bishops
were "determined to preserve as far as possible the structures and
forms of [the Council of] Trent" and "more concerned about Communion
in the hand than they are about the war in Vietnam.
"I see no hope for any future change in their attitude," he said in a
letter to priests of the Providence diocese. "Since discussion is
impossible, I feel obligated in conscience to protest in the only way
possible, by my resignation."
Just five months later, however, the U.S. bishops at their fall
general meeting approved a resolution calling a speedy end to the
Vietnam War "a moral imperative of the highest priority."
"Whatever good we hope to achieve through continued involvement in
this war is now outweighed by the destruction of human life and of
moral values, which it inflicts," they added. "Hence we feel a moral
obligation to appeal urgently to our nation's leaders and indeed to
the leaders of all the nations involved in this tragic conflict to
bring the war to an end with no further delay."
Born May 7, 1918, in Providence, Bernard Matthew Kelly was educated at
Providence Catholic elementary and high schools, Providence College,
the Pontifical Major Roman Seminary in Rome and Theological College of
The Catholic University of America in Washington.
Ordained to the priesthood June 3, 1944, he earned a doctorate in
canon law at Catholic University following ordination.
Before his appointment as auxiliary bishop of Providence in late 1963,
then-Fr. Kelly had served as an assistant pastor; as an instructor at
LaSalle Academy in Providence; as chaplain of Mother of Hope Novitiate
in Warwick; and as spiritual director of Our Lady of Providence
Seminary in Warwick Neck. He also had been defender of the matrimonial
bond on the diocesan tribunal since 1947.
