February 16, 2011
By Staff Reporter
“I’m non-violent, but I’m not a pacifist,” the plucky 67-year-old pastor said.
Kelly said he reckoned that fighting back against an assailant was simply “instinctual.”
Kelly was viciously attacked by a burglar last week in the rectory of St. Brigid’s Catholic church in Bushwick. The intruder had managed to squeeze through an upstairs bathroom window in the early hours of Thursday morning. The intruder awakened Kelly, who was sleeping in the adjoining bedroom but who then confronted the man.
In the struggle that followed, Msgr. Kelly took a number of blows to the face that resulted in black and heavily swollen eyes. But Kelly gave as good as he got. As the intruder grabbed him, Kelly wrestled his attacker to the floor. The two men rolled back into the bedroom at which point the intruder asked to be let go.
“Normally they run away, but maybe he felt cornered after the first time I pushed him down,” Kelly said.
As soon as Kelly let the man go, however, he swung at the priest. Kelly suffered two facial fractures as well as swollen eyes.
After taking the blows, Kelly pushed the intruder back into the bathroom and pulled the door shut. He did not go back into the bathroom until he was sure the intruder had left.
The entire commotion failed to awaken another priest sleeping a floor below, but Msgr. Kelly knew for certain that he had been in a real scrap. He spent last weekend in hospital recovering from his injuries and fielding questions from reporters.
“In 44 years I’ve been attacked four or five times, but I was never hurt like this,” he said.
The intruder escaped with less than $100 and a few bruises of his own.
Kelly is well known in New York as a priest who is also an attorney. For years he has counseled and campaigned for immigrants in the city and is a member of the board of the Emerald Isle Immigration Center.
Kelly said that he had received many calls from friends and well wishers, including a call from one of his closest friends, Bishop Willie Walsh of Killaloe.
Kelly was back to work at St. Brigid’s on Monday. During Mass he prayed for the victims of all violent crimes.