Bernard Matthew Kelly

{{Infobox Christian leader | name = Bernard Matthew Kelly | image = | church = Roman Catholic Church | ordination = June 3, 1944 (Priest) | consecration = January 30, 1964 (Bishop) | consecrated_by = Russell McVinney | appointed = November 25, 1963 | ended = June 14, 1971 | successor = | birth_date = May 7, 1918 | birth_place = Providence, Rhode Island, US | death_date = {{death date and age|2006|12|5|1918|5|7|df=y}} | death_place = Keyser, West Virginia, US | coat_of_arms = Coat of arms of Bernard Matthew Kelly.svg }} '''Bernard Matthew Kelly''' (May 7, 1918 – December 5, 2006) was a Roman Catholic auxiliary bishop.

==Background== Born in Providence, Rhode Island on May 7, 1918, Kelly attended his elementary and middle School studies at Providence College and in his studies to the priesthood at the Pontifical Roman Seminary in Rome and the Theological College of the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. He was ordained priest on June 3, 1944.<ref name=cath>{{Catholic-hierarchy|bishop|bkellyb|(Layman) Bernard Matthew Kelly|23 January 2015}}</ref> After ordination, Kelly received his doctorate at the Catholic University in Canon Law and served as assistant pastor and as an instructor at La Salle Academy in Providence. He also served as chaplain of Mother of Hope Novitiate in Warwick, Rhode Island and as spiritual director of Our Lady of Providence Seminary in Warwick Neck.<ref name=cns>{{cite news |url=http://www.corpus.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=feature.display&feature_id=808 |title=Bernard M. Kelly; Former bishop who resigned over war, other issues, dies at 88 |work=Catholic News Service |date=December 12, 2006 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20150123135238/http://www.corpus.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=feature.display&feature_id=808 |archivedate=January 23, 2015 }}</ref> In 1947, Kelly was named marriage defender of the Diocese of Providence.

==Ordination, resignation and reconciliation with the Church== Kelly was named titular bishop of ''Tegea'' and auxiliary bishop of Providence on November 25, 1963 by Pope Paul VI.<ref name=cath/> Russell McVinney, Bishop of Providence ordained him bishop on January 30 of the following year and his co-consecrators were Joseph McShea, Bishop of Allentown, and Gerald Vincent McDevitt, Auxiliary Bishop in Philadelphia.

At the forefront of the ecumenical movement came from Second Vatican Council, in what he participated in its third and fourth sessions, Kelly spoke in front of an evangelical Protestant congregation in 1965.<ref name=cns/> In 1971, he drew controversy when, in a sermon, he called it "scandalous that churchmen are so concerned about abortion and yet have nothing to say about destruction of human life in Laos."<ref name=cns/> Disappointed with the church's position on the Vietnam War, he left active ministry on June 14, 1971.<ref>{{Cite web|title=The Catholic Advocate 17 June 1971 — Catholic Research Resources Alliance|url=https://thecatholicnewsarchive.org/?a=d&d=ca19710617-01.2.2|access-date=2020-10-16|website=thecatholicnewsarchive.org}}</ref><ref name=cns/> He later married and then served as director of a hospital in Florida and opened his own law firm in Rhode Island. Later on he worked as an attorney in Rhode Island and West Virginia, where he had lived since 1990; he died in Keyser in 2006.<ref name=cns/>

==References== {{Reflist}}

==Sources== *The functions reserved to pastors. A historical synopsis and a commentary. (= Canon law studies). Catholic University of America Press, Washington 1947, OCLC, [https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/978273138 worldcat.org], (also dissertation, Catholic University of America 44).

==External links== *[https://web.archive.org/web/20160101202340/http://w2.vatican.va/content/vatican/en.html Official site of the Holy See]

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kelly, Bernard Matthew}} Category:1918 births Category:2006 deaths Category:20th-century American lawyers Category:20th-century American Roman Catholic titular bishops Category:Auxiliary bishops Category:Bishops appointed by Pope Paul VI Category:Clergy from Providence, Rhode Island Category:Lawyers from Keyser, West Virginia Category:Lawyers from Providence, Rhode Island Category:Rhode Island lawyers Category:Diocese of Providence Category:West Virginia lawyers