By Amy White
The Texas Catholic
Before Bishop Gregory Kelly was a priest or bishop, he was a boy in Colorado Springs playing kick the can, tossing baseballs, and pretending to be adventurers with his siblings; but even in those early days, his siblings said, hints of Bishop Kelly’s future vocation were already emerging.
The son of John and Marilean Kelly, and one of five siblings, Bishop Kelly was born in Iowa and raised in Colorado. His father owned a residential construction company, where his mother managed the books and the two Kelly brothers worked summers and weekends as needed, cleaning up the job sites, framing walls—whatever was necessary for the family business.
Dennis Kelly, the bishop’s younger brother, remembered that as a boy, Bishop Kelly would bike over the hilly roads of Colorado Springs—rain, snow, or shine—to complete his paper route and earn his pay. With the money he earned, he purchased a “4 over 14 inch statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary,” Kelly said, and “a crown for it.” The young Bishop Kelly set the Marian statue in the boys’ shared bedroom, where he would lift his heart to God in prayer at the small altar he had arranged in his room.
The faith was ubiquitous in the Kelly household: Their father frequented early morning adoration; their mother read Bible stories to the children before bed; the siblings attended Sacred Heart Elementary School and St. Mary’s High School; and the whole family gathered in the parents’ bedroom to say the rosary at night.
During their family rosaries, a then-teenage Jeanette White, the youngest of the Kelly siblings, found that she was having trouble connecting to the prayer—even while her older brother, Bishop Kelly, was deep in prayerful meditation.
“I didn’t really know how to say the rosary in a way that was meaningful to me,” White said. After White told her older brother about her plight, Bishop Kelly offered his assistance. He began to describe the prayer as a song, with the words of the rosary as the melody and her prayers, personal thoughts, and intentions as the lyrics. “It was a huge gift, because at that age, I started to understand the rosary better.”
Theresa McCormick, a younger sister of Bishop Kelly, also experienced her brother’s reverence towards the faith at a young age. She especially noted his devotion to the Blessed Mother and his dedication to the Mass, including as an avid altar server.
“Dad would always ask what the sermon was about after Mass,” she recalled. “I’m thinking, ‘Oh man, what was it about?’ Greg would remember though.”
It didn’t take long for members of Bishop Kelly’s community to notice this devotion and suspect that he might be called to serve the Church as a priest.
“We had a babysitter that was quite gifted in art, and so she drew caricatures of all of us when we were little,” White said. “She did a poem with it, and his was about being a priest. So, people saw in him something special from an early age.”
Answering the call
While a Colorado State University student, Bishop Kelly decided to explore the possibility of priesthood. He joined Holy Trinity Seminary in 1976 and began taking classes at the University of Dallas. None of his siblings were surprised.
“He just always kind of seemed headed that way,” Mary Davis, the eldest sibling, said.
Bishop Kelly was ordained a priest May 15, 1982, at his family’s home parish, Sacred Heart Parish in Colorado Springs; and the whole family was in attendance.
“We were all involved in it,” McCormick recalled. “My sister did a reading. My brother’s best friend did a reading.” At the request of her brother, McCormick strummed “Abba Father” on her guitar during the celebration. “It was just very moving.”
The siblings noted the specialness of the moment when their brother lay prostrate on the ground during his ordination. The moment opened their eyes to the genuine humility of their brother and the path of service that he was choosing to follow.
Bishop Kelly proceeded to serve as associate pastor of All Saints Church, 1982-86; University of Dallas chaplain, 1986-96; founding pastor of St. Gabriel the Archangel Parish in McKinney, 1996-2008; Diocese of Dallas vicar for clergy, 2008-16; and auxiliary bishop of the Diocese of Dallas, 2016-25.
“I remember when he was ordained bishop, he said with all of (the transitions), there have been graces of their own, and that he’s just loved them all,” McCormick said. “Whatever he was asked to do, he has always said yes.”
Feb. 24, Bishop Kelly was installed as the fifth bishop of the Diocese of Tyler.
Family of faith
Through all these transitions, Bishop Kelly has retained a commitment to his family life, his siblings shared.
“They never stop being your big brothers or your little brothers, no matter what their vocation is,” White said. “When Greg comes home, he’s Greg. Those relationships have not been altered by his status.”
Despite his busy schedule, the bishop has been present for many big family moments—baptisms, weddings, funerals. Davis also shared a more recent memory of her brother joining his family in Breckenridge to celebrate New Year’s Eve Mass last year surrounded by his great nieces and nephews.
“He has always worked it in that he can take care of those special moments for our family,” Davis said. “It’s so precious to me that he has been able to do that.”
Kelly, who recalled making frequent climbs in the Colorado mountains with Bishop Kelly and the family dog, Princess, during their childhood, said his older brother still takes time to explore nature with him.
“We convinced ourselves early on that he and I were the first ones to ever step on the tops of some of the foothills around Pikes Peak,” Kelly said. “Since I’ve been married, we’ve gone on a number of hikes at Pikes Peak… he and I and my two kids. Being able to spend that kind of time in the outdoors in the mountains with him now is really a blessing. Family is very important to him, and he makes a point of keeping in contact.”
As Bishop Kelly commences his service in Tyler, White said her brother will apply the same zeal he has for his biological family to his faith family, the souls in his diocese. The people he has served in Dallas are his family, she said; and the people of Tyler will become his family too.
Reflecting on his brother’s call to Tyler, Kelly said that the transition seems like a fitting one, like Bishop Kelly’s “whole life has brought him to this—his time as a priest and working in parishes, his time in the chancellery office, his time as auxiliary bishop… His whole life has really been in preparation for this.” And, Kelly remarked about his family, “We’ll be with him on the journey.”
Cutline for featured image: Bishop Gregory Kelly joined by then-Bishop Kevin J. Farrell poses with members of the Kelly family following Bishop Kelly’s episcopal ordination Mass at the National Shrine Cathedral of Our Lady of Guadalupe on Feb. 11, 2016. (RON HEFLIN/Special Contributor)
Find more coverage of Bishop Gregory Kelly in the Feb. 28 print edition of The Texas Catholic.
