A PRIEST removed from ministry in California after sexual abuse allegations told his bishop he was returning to Ireland, a statement from a US diocese said yesterday.
Fr Michael Kelly of the Stockton diocese was removed from ministry by the diocese on April 6th after a civil jury found against him in a case alleging sexual abuse in the 1980s, the diocese said. Fr Kelly has denied the allegations.
The priest left in the midst of the second part of a civil trial. Fr Kelly was “in the midst of the civil trial in which he is a defendant”, Bishop Blaire of the diocese of Stockton said yesterday. “I was stunned to receive a letter from Fr Michael Kelly informing me he had returned to Ireland,” the bishop said.
“I have tried to reach Fr Kelly by email and by phone to implore him to return and see the trial through to its completion,” he said.
Fr Kelly wrote in a letter to the bishop dated Sunday and released by the diocese: “By the time you read this letter I will be in Ireland with my family. I am sorry for any difficulty this may cause the diocese, but my health can’t take it anymore.”
He added: “I have sat back and listened to the vicious false allegations that have been spread about me for the past four and a half years, and my health has suffered greatly because of it. . .
“I have spent the last 39 years of my life serving God and the people of the various parishes of the diocese of Stockton. I hope you will understand that right now I need to be with my family, whose support and love for me is unconditional.”
