Msgr. Kelly dies; was scholars group founder, critic of dissent

Published: 2004-08-18

NEW YORK (CNS) -- Msgr. George A. Kelly, one of the founders of the Fellowship of Catholic Scholars, and a longtime critic of dissent in the church, died Aug. 13 after a yearlong bout with cancer. He was 87. A funeral Mass for Msgr. Kelly was celebrated at St. John the Evangelist Church in New York Aug. 17. He was buried at Calvary Cemetery. Msgr. Kelly, a priest of the Archdiocese of New York, had been a pastor, diocesan administrator and university professor, and was the author or editor of three dozen books. As a professor at St. John's University in New York, he was among a group of philosophers, theologians and other scholars who met in 1977 to discuss their sense of intellectual alienation amid the contemporary changes in the church. From that meeting the group the next year established the Fellowship of Catholic Scholars, with Msgr. Kelly as its executive secretary. Msgr. Kelly was the first family life director for the New York Archdiocese, beginning in 1955, and the first director of its education department, beginning in 1966. His 1958 book, "The Catholic Marriage Manual," earned nearly $250,000 in royalties, which he donated to the New York Foundling Hospital. He also was on the faculty of The Catholic University of America in Washington and served for more than a decade as a consultant to the Vatican's Congregation for Clergy.

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