Kevin T. Kelly

Who is Kevin T. Kelly?

The Rev. Dr. Kevin T. Kelly is a British Roman Catholic priest and moral theologian.

Kelly was born in Crosby, just north of Liverpool, England on 27 June 1933, to Patrick and Winifred Kelly from Northern Ireland. Kelly has been a pioneering priest and theologian, nurturing a compassionate approach to Catholic morality from the 1960s down to the present day. In his academic and pastoral work, he has tackled some of the most pressing issues facing the Church today - human conscience, HIV-AIDS, divorce and second marriage, bioethics, sexual ethics and pastoral theology in general.

After formative years at the Upholland Senior Seminary, Lancashire, where he would later return to work, Kelly was further educated at Fribourg University, Switzerland and at the Gregorianum University, Rome. At Fribourg he completed a doctorate in moral theology and in Rome he gained a licentiate in Canon Law. The author of seven books and well over a hundred articles and chapters elsewhere, he has worked tirelessly in urban parishes and academic settings alike, from the very outset of his priestly calling.

He began his academic career at St Joseph's Seminary, Upholland, England, during which time he also served as a visiting lecturer at the University of Manchester, looking after the students of Ronald Preston, and further honing his ecumenical vision and commitment. Kevin embarked upon that tireless combination of being both an academic moral theologian at one and the same time as being a pastor at the ‘coal face’, when he was appointed to serve as Assistant Priest at St Clare's Parish in Liverpool from 1963-65.