Fr. James Joseph Kelly, of Philadelphia (United States), turned 100 in January and this 2025 celebrates 75 years of his priestly ordination. In an interview with AP, he tells how his vocation arose being a child, a little of his life and a pleasant memory with Mother Teresa de Calcutta.
His best memory with Mother Teresa
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The priest told Associated Press (AP) that on one occasion he served as the driver of the founder of the missioners of charity, and on the way he could tell him that “he was a wonderful person,” and “I said:” Mother Teresa, what if you pray for me? And she said, well, of course, I will pray for you every day of my life. It is a promise. “
Some years later, in a pilgrimage in the Holy Land with a group of people, specifically in the Holy Sepulcher of Jerusalem, he saw the beloved religious.
“Mother Teresa was about to leave and approached me and went to me by my name. ‘Father Kelly, how are you? You look wonderful.’
Who is Fr. James Joseph Kelly, of Philadelphia?
Fr. James Joseph Kelly is the longest priest of Philadelphia (United States). On January 7, he turned 100 and this 2025 celebrates 75 years of his priestly ordination, received in 1950 when he was only 25.
These days, the priest gets up very early to celebrate Mass in the nursing home where he lives. He likes opera and preparing cakes. He has traveled to more than 100 countries and his favorite food is roasted chicken with mashed potatoes, green beans and a corn cob.
“I hope I have helped many others on my trip on this highway of life. That is all I can say: ‘Lord, you know, I did the best I could. It may not have been the best I could have done, but I tried.’ I tried. ‘All I can say is that you never stop trying and in the end you will be right,” says the priest.
The origin of his vocation
Father Kelly remembers that being a child he already dreamed of being a priest. “When I was little, I had my table in my room, and I had a glass with flowers and played to celebrate Mass. I had candies and gave communion to the family with candies,” he recalls.
“From my early years, going to Mass with my parents, I saw what the priest did there. Sometimes, when I returned home, I tried to play Mass. I tried to dress like the priest and I had my little altar in my room and said Mass,” he continues.
The priest also shares that he has served in many parishes and that he believes that there are thousands of people who have been able to baptize, marry and also say goodbye to this life at many funerals.
“I can’t tell the number of people I have married and those who have participated in their lives,” he said.
Walter Sánchez Silva
I am husband since 2008. With my wife we have three children here and one who went to heaven in 2023, before birth. Since I joined ACI Press in 2005, I have had the opportunity to cover various events of the Catholic Church. Among them, the World Youth Days in Colonia, Madrid and Rio de Janeiro and the apostolic trips of Pope Benedict XVI to Mexico and Pope Francis to South Korea. I have been sent to the Vatican to cover the family’s synods, in 2015; of the Amazon, in 2019 and that of Sinodality, in 2023. I follow the situation of the Catholic Church in Nicaragua, which suffers the persecution of the dictatorship of Daniel Ortega, as well as the ecclesial news in the region.