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| Father Michael Kelly |
I had occasion to speak to a person from California who is a long time friend of Father Michael Kelly, the California-based priest who flew to his native Ireland after losing a civil case against him on an abuse charge.
Yesterday we wrote that Kelly was found liable on the civil charge despite the fact that the accusations against him by a 37-year old man, a pilot for Southwest Airlines, were based on “recovered memories” a highly dubious method as recent history has shown in cases such as the McMartin preschool case.
The man alleged that Kelly abused him when he was a young altar boy back in the mid 1980s.
The person who knows Kelly for over twenty years says they believe that Kelly was likely innocent but they could not be absolutely certain.
The person told me that Father Michael Kelly is straight out of the John Shanley play and movie ‘Doubt’ where an unproven charge against a priest results in his removal from a parish.
“Father Flynn of that movie” the person said, “is exactly like Kelly. “There is suspicion but no outright proof and he has plausibly and extensively denied it.”
This is no open and shut case. Kelly passed two lie detector tests, has hundreds of his former parishioners still siding with him and an extensive inquiry by the diocese of Stockton found him not guilty.
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His flight to Ireland was not illegal. He is not under any prison sentence, he lost a civil case.
My informant also told me that the plaintiff’s attorney John C. Manly who is a specialist and who has won hundreds of millions against the church in such lawsuits, easily outsmarted the Kelly attorneys who were not in the same league. “They were no match for Manly” the person said.
There is said to be another case against him dating to 2002 but the fact that it has never been to court suggests it never will rise to the burden of proof needed to prosecute.
Parishioners still flocked to him and they turned out in large numbers for him despite the guilty verdict.
Kelly is left in a no man’s land, half priest half accused felon.
According to local reports he can no longer publicly perform priestly duties.
Kelly cannot invite people to participate in privately held events, but individuals can invite him.
Kelly did participate in a privately conducted Easter vigil at a rural Lodi-area residence.
Local Bishop Stephen Blaire is required to write a formal report to a Vatican body called the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith, which is responsible for dealing with clergy sexual abuse crises within the Catholic Church.
"They will advise me back what action they believe should be taken," Blaire told the Modesto Bee.
That could mean they defrock Kelly.
But the question will always remain -- is he innocent or guilty?
12 Comments
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Switch to the desktop site to post a comment.fatherelijah | Apr 24, 2012, 03:00 PM EDT
What is nasty is that Fr. Kelly is a "compulsive liar"!!!! I cannot emphasize that enough. I am a witness to his backstabbing ways. He always tries to look innocent in all that he does. This man lies so much that he really believes his lies. Which is why he passed the lie detector tests. He has lied so consistently that his twisted conscience does not produce a physical-chemical impulse to bely his statements.
EamonnDublin | Apr 24, 2012, 04:56 AM EDT
My goodness, but I would just hate to be up in court with some of the guys posting here on the jury! What a nasty, self-righteous, presumptuous, arrogant, hate-ridden lot some of you are. Hopefully, the truth will come out in time, whatever it may be. If it shows Fr. Kelly to have been guilty, then I will be the first to say "shame". However, for now, it appears that there is some way to go. In any event, all victims of crime can always be comforted by the knowledge that, when the courts get it wrong, "in this world you get the law - in the next world you get justice". Éamonn, Dublin, Ireland.
pilib04 | Apr 22, 2012, 07:02 PM EDT
Niall, are you 4.3 million dollars sure that this man is not a piece of human garbage. He certainly is no priest no matter what title you give him.
pilib04 | Apr 22, 2012, 06:49 PM EDT
Well, the diocese has agreed to pay 3.4 million dollars for this piece of garbage. So happy to hear that a report must be made to the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith. You know the department headed by Cardinal Levada. Yeah, the same Cardinal who spent his time as bishop of San Francisco hiding rapist-priests and punishing priests who turned in the rapist-priests. Levada is also the monster who went after the Leadership Conference of Women Religious. Levada appointed the rapist-priest-hiding bishop of Seattle to investigate the nuns. It would be funny if it weren't all true.
MelanieSakoda | Apr 20, 2012, 10:37 PM EDT
Niall O'Dowd has the facts wrong. The criminal charges filed in Calaveras County against Father Michael Kelly, although concerning acts alleged to have occurred in 2002, were not filed until the fall of 2011. The allegations in that case do not stem from recovered memories. Moreover, law enforcement indicated yesterday that the investigation is still ongoing because more victims have come forward. Melanie Jula Sakoda Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) SNAP East Bay Director Toll Free Phone: 1-877-SNAPHEALS (1-877-762-7432) melanie.sakoda@gmail.com
helpchildren | Apr 20, 2012, 09:48 PM EDT
This article is wrong about recovered memory. Research shows that recovered memories are often accurate and many are verified. (see brown.edu recovered memory project 110 Corroborated Cases of Recovered Memory). In one study, not one of the verified recovered memories of abuse occurred when the victim was in therapy. In the case of Father James Porter, a Catholic priest who admitted molesting more than 100 boys and girls, many of his victims remembered the abuse only after they heard about the case in the media. His first victim who came forward stated that there had been a period of amnesia for the abuse. The fact of the abuse and the reality of the delayed memories were confirmed in this case. The McMartin case had hundreds of children alleging abuse. There were physical symptoms of abuse in many of the children. The majority of the jurors in the case believed the children were abused. The case lasted many years with several hung juries. There was no "manufactured evidence" in this case. The tunnels were found there, backing up the children's stories of abuse. 1000s of Catholic clergy and religious have raped and sodomized tens of thousands of children, even perhaps more than 100,000 children since 1950. In the US, about 2/3 of sitting U.S. bishops were alleged in 2002 to have kept accused priests in ministry or moved accused priests to new assignments. Less than 2 percent of sexual abuse allegations against the Catholic church appear to be false. Let's leave it to the court to decide if Kelly is guilty or not.
seanomelb | Apr 20, 2012, 07:16 PM EDT
It would appear that some posters on this site want him to be guilty.I wonder what their agenda is?? A civil court outcome is always tenuous in its finding.In repressive memory cases how much does the analyst coach the victim (unwittingly) into th thinking he was molested.
Westy99 | Apr 20, 2012, 02:28 PM EDT
I served as an altar boy with Father Kelly and remain a friend of his all these years later. Although I spent a fair amount of time alone with him as a boy, never did his behaviour approach the level of abuse or inappropriateness. While this certainly doesn't prove his innocence, losing a civil trial hardly constitutes "proof" of guilt, especially when you consider the nature of the evidence (repressed memory) and Mr. Manly's noted expertise at extracting payment from the Church. Fr. Kelly is in poor health and no longer has any means to support himself. I'm not sure he had any choice but to return home.
PhlutiePhan | Apr 20, 2012, 02:22 PM EDT
You quote the McMartin preschool case and are obviously fuzzy on what really happened in that instance. All of the witnesses were "muchkins" and their testimony was seen as mass hysteria among the "wee people". In fact, these children were quizzed separately and all had the same story with advanced knowledge of sexual acts at about the age of five. The insinuation was that these 4 and 5 year olds engaged in a massive conspiracy to deny the civil rights of a "crusty older woman" and her family. There were accusations that police officers and judges were involved in a massive pedophile ring. The local Catholic Church was also implicated and later these same priests were accused of pedophilia in an entire different setting. The Archdiocese of Philadelplhia is in court over a charge of a massive conspiracy to protect pedophiles. I believe that the McMartin preschool case should be seen for what it really was and that is that a large number of children had their innocence destroyed and no one would believe them. You talk about being told that the "tooth fairy" did not exist and here you have adults in positions of authority taking advantage of the inability of children to express their terror at being violated. McMartin was guilty as charged. I do not know about Father Kelly. These children were taken to other locales and animals such as rabbits were killed in front of them to ensure their silence out of terror. Malachi Martin labelled the issue of pedophilia as one of the infiltration of the devil into the Church as well as society. McMartin is only one instance.
credere | Apr 20, 2012, 12:06 PM EDT
I read somewhere that 94% of allegations made against clergy have been proven untrue or do not have sufficient evidence to prove. I am currently studying for the priesthood and this terrifies me! The Reynolds case in Ireland was disproved through DNA testing of the alleged child...what if there had been no child and the allegation had been one of sexual molestation all those years ago? Could Fr K Reynolds have cleared his name or become another 'defrocked' statistic? What happened in the past was evil and depraved and thank God can't/won't ever happen again but what is happening now is also evil and depraved, as in so many cases solve the problem of evil by replacing it with evil! What can be done?
Murph46 | Apr 20, 2012, 10:36 AM EDT
Much as I think the whole Pedophile priest thing is reprehensible,if he is innocent,let's not have a witch hunt based on someone else's pedophilia.
hermitTalker | Apr 20, 2012, 09:40 AM EDT
Heck: He passed two lie tests, the diocese's scrutinty, they are thorough tiday, and the pilot's repressed memory excuse is long-discedited. So, Manly the too-clever-lawyer, and the SW airline pilot should fly off somewhere they can breathe easily, get lots of fresh air, eat healthily. Then after a good potty visit "come on down." To where GOD's son Jesus is the final Judge