Clarence Kelly

Clarence Kelly (born 1941) is a traditional Catholic bishop. He was born in Brooklyn, New York, was ordained as a priest on April 13, 1973, in Écône, Switzerland by Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre for the Society of Saint Pius X, and was consecrated as a bishop by Bishop Alfredo Méndez-Gonzalez.

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


Ordination history of
Clarence Kelly
History
Priestly ordination
Ordained byMarcel Lefebvre
DateApril 13, 1973
PlaceThe International Seminary of Saint Pius X, Écône, Switzerland
Episcopal consecration
Consecrated byAlfredo Méndez-Gonzalez
DateOctober 19, 1993
Episcopal succession
Bishops consecrated by Clarence Kelly as principal consecrator
Joseph SantayFebruary 28, 2007

Biography

A native Brooklyn, Kelly attended the Catholic University of America. After his ordination in Écône, he returned to the United States and undertook some speaking engagements for the John Birch Society.[1]

Kelly eventually became superior of the Society of Saint Pius X in the United States. In 1983 Kelly, along with eight other priests, left the society because of their refusal to accept the 1962 Roman Missal promulgated by Pope John XXIII which was used by Archbishop Lefebvre. "The nine" also refused to recognize post-conciliar annulments and ordinations. The nine priests formed the Society of St. Pius V (SSPV), which held that it is, at least, a debatable question whether the popes since 1958 have in fact been legitimate Roman Pontiffs.[1]

Some of the original priests of the SSPV, including Daniel Dolan, Anthony Cekada and Donald Sanborn, broke away from the SSPV in part due to the Most Reverend Clarence Kelly's rejection of the validity of bishops consecrated by or in the lineage of Archbishop Pierre Martin Ngô Đình Thục, and because they wanted to start an independent ministry to openly promote the sedevacantist position. Sanborn and Dolan were subsequently consecrated bishops in this Thục-lineage after previously openly rejecting them.

Kelly was consecrated as a bishop on October 19, 1993, in Carlsbad, California, by eighty-six year old Alfredo Méndez-Gonzalez, the retired Bishop of Arecibo, Puerto Rico.[2]

In January 2012, an Albany, New York jury found Kelly guilty of defamation for remarks made by him regarding Mark LaSalle of Mark LaSalle Fine Art. In 2002 the Daughters of Mary Mother of Our Savior, an order of nuns affiliated with Kelly's Society of St. Pius V. acquired William-Adolphe Bouguereau's “Notre Dame des Anges” (“Our Lady of the Angels). In 2009 the nuns sold the painting to Zaplin for $450,000. "The nuns claimed in a 2009 lawsuit that they were swindled when they sold a painting to him for $450,000 and he ended up selling it for more than $2 million."[3] The jury determined that remarks Kelly made regarding the sale, in a television interview defamed Mark LaSalle.

Book
  • Conspiracy against God and Man

References
  1. Cuneo, Michael W., The Smoke of Satan: Conservative and Traditionalist Dissent in Contemporary American Catholicism, JHU Press, 1999, p. 96ISBN 9780801862656
  2. Cuneo, p. 102.
  3. Oswald, Mark. "Gallery Owner Didn’t Cheat Nuns", Albuquerque Journal, January 11, 2012
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