Monsignor Francis Kelley, who served as the pastor of Roslindale’s Sacred Heart parish from 1991 to 2020, died on February 4. There will be a viewing service on February 13 from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. at Sacred Heart, and the Funeral Mass will be on Saturday February 14 at 11 a.m. in Sacred Heart’s upper church. The mass will be livestreamed.

“He was faithful,” said the Rev. Eugene Sullivan, who has been friends with Kelley since they met in their first year at St. John’s Seminary in 1963. The two would stay close for the next 63 years, including sharing a love of fly fishing. “He was a wonderful priest, he prayed well, he reached out to people, and he loved Roslindale,” Sullivan added.

This sentiment was shared by many of Kelley’s former parishioners. “He had a talent for bringing people together,” said Lee Blasi, who has been a parishioner at Sacred Heart since 1946 and has seen the parish grow and change dramatically, from one that was predominantly white to one of the most multiracial parishes in the diocese. Kelley worked to make sure that everyone felt welcome at Sacred Heart, and that it felt like one parish unified by a shared faith, and not thirty separate parishes split by ethnicity.

One of the ways he did this was by encouraging lay participation in the life of the parish. “He’d go ask people if they considered teaching confirmation or being on the finance committee, and people would say yes because it’s Fr. Kelley and they didn’t want to disappoint him. He knew everybody and knew what they’d be good at,” said John Kerpan, who has been a member of Sacred Heart since 1997. “He had trust in you,” said Adriana Cillo, who has been attending Sacred Heart for over 50 years. She didn’t know very much about golf when she started organizing the parish golf fundraiser with Kelley, but she has now been a co-organizer for decades.

For Kelley, Catholicism was not just about attendance at Sunday mass. “He made it very easy to see how your faith should play into the decisions you made in your everyday life without being preachy,” said Kerpan. One of the ways Kelley exemplified this as a pastor was by both attending local political and civic meetings in the neighborhood, and by inviting small business owners, non-profit leaders, and politicians to a monthly meeting at the rectory. “He brought the parish into the community,” said Blasi. “He saw the parish as both a place of worship and the very center of a neighborhood,” said the Archdiocese of Boston in a statement, adding that, “he met people where they were regardless of their station in life, helping so many through some very difficult times.”

A way he served the broader Boston community was through his work at the Pine Street Inn, which is the largest homeless services provider in New England. His first assignment as a priest was at St. Ambrose in Dorchester in 1968, and he met many men struggling with alcoholism. It was this experience of suffering that drove him to work with Paul Sullivan, an addiction recovery counselor. Initially, the Pine Street Inn served a small population of men who had difficulties with alcohol, but in the 1980s, when there was deinstitutionalization of the mentally ill, the population of homeless people in Boston went up dramatically. Later, rising rent prices meant even more people needed help. Kelley stayed faithful to the organization, helping to guide it even as he was also continuing his work as a parish priest. “Fr. Frank Kelley was not only one of the founders of Pine Street Inn, but he was also the heart and soul of the organization for more than 55 years. His commitment to those experiencing homelessness never wavered, and Boston is a better city because of him,” said the Pine Street Inn.

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“He was someone who led a big life,” said Lew Finfer. Finfer is Jewish, but he met Kelley through their shared passion for service at the Greater Boston Interfaith Organization (GBIO). He praised Kelley for his dedication to supporting housing, including being a leader in GBIO’s work to get the legislature to sign the Affordable Homes Act. This bill has authorized billions of dollars to help with affordable housing in Massachusetts.

Kelley had no biological siblings, but he had many beloved brothers: his fellow priests. Cillo praised him for always welcoming African priests who were studying in Boston to the rectory at Sacred Heart. After he left Sacred Heart, he served as the chaplain at Regina Cleri, the retirement home for priests in the West End. “Of all the chaplains I’ve had, he was one of the best,” said Stephen Gust, the director of Regina Cleri, who has worked there for 33 years. He praised Kelley for his commitment to strengthening the ties of retired priests to younger priests and seminarians. But Kelley also worked to connect priests with the world outside of the church, either by bringing speakers in, or by taking them to visit the Pine Street Inn. And he made sure those in a hospital or rehab always had visitors.

As chaplain, he was responsible for running the liturgies at Regina Cleri, some of which, like for Easter, can be very involved. “For many of these men, it’s the first time they’ve been able to sit in the pews and enjoy it. They’ve spent their life organizing,” said Gust. But that meant Kelley himself was not able to really be retired. “He was a man for others,” said Sullivan.

Francis Kelley was born on September 9, 1941, to Francis and Margaret Kelley. He is survived by many beloved cousins. He was raised in Canton and attended Boston College High School and Holy Cross College. He graduated from Holy Cross in 1963 and began studying for the priesthood that fall at St. John’s Seminary. He was ordained as a deacon in 1967 and as a priest in 1968, and during his ministry served at Our Lady of the Angels in Roxbury, St. Ambrose in Dorchester, St. John the Baptist in Peabody, and St. Boniface in Quincy, before becoming pastor at Sacred Heart in 1991. After retiring from Sacred Heart, he was chaplain at Regina Cleriand also celebrated mass and heard confessions at the Shrine of Our Lady of Good Voyage in the Seaport. He was given the title ‘Monsignor’ in 1998, an honor conferred by the Pope on priests with especially distinguished service to the church. Donations in his memory can be made to the Pine Street Inn.