Clarence Kelly

Clarence Kelly (born 1941) is a traditional Catholic bishop. He was born in Brooklyn, New York, and ordained as a priest on April 13, 1973, in Écône, Switzerland by Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre for the Society of Saint Pius X.

Kelly eventually became superior of the society in the United States. In 1983 Kelly, along with eight other priests, left the society because of their refusal to accept the 1962 Roman Missal promulgated by Pope John XXIII which was used by Archbishop Lefebvre. "The nine" also refused to recognize post-conciliar annulments and ordinations. The nine priests formed the Society of St. Pius V (SSPV), which held that it is, at least, a debatable question whether the popes since 1958 have in fact been legitimate Roman Pontiffs and, subsequently, whether the revisions of the Roman Missal after 1958 were legitimate.

Some of the original priests of the SSPV, including Daniel Dolan, Anthony Cekada and Donald Sanborn, broke away from the SSPV in part due to the Most Reverend Clarence Kelly's rejection of the validity of bishops consecrated by or in the lineage of Archbishop Pierre Martin Ngô Đình Thục, and because they wanted to start an independent ministry to openly promote the sedevacantist position. Sanborn and Dolan were subsequently consecrated bishops in this Thục-lineage after previously openly rejecting them.

Kelly was consecrated as a bishop on October 19, 1993, in Carlsbad, California, by eighty-six year old Alfredo Méndez-Gonzalez, the retired Bishop of Arecibo, Puerto Rico.

In January 2012 an Albany, New York jury found Kelly guilty of defamation for remarks made by him regarding Santa Fe art gallery owner, Mark Zaplin and an art appraiser. In 2002 the Daughters of Mary Mother of Our Savior, an order of nuns affiliated with Kelly's Society of St. Pius V. had been given William-Adolphe Bouguereau's “Notre Dame des Anges” (“Our Lady of the Angels). In 2009 the nuns sold the painting to Zaplin for the appraised value of $450,000. "The nuns claimed in a 2009 lawsuit that they were swindled when they sold a painting to him for $450,000 and he ended up selling it for more than $2 million." The jury determined that remarks Kelly made regarding the sale, in a television interview defamed both the dealer and the appraiser.