Father Michael J. Kelley was honored by his flock at St. Martin of Tours Parish in Washington, D.C., and by family and friends at a festive Mass and reception on May 18 celebrating his 50 years of serving as a priest in the nation’s capital.
Father Kelley – the pastor of St. Martins of Tours Catholic Church at North Capitol and T Streets, N.W., for the past 33 years – said he was ordained for The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Washington on May 17, 1975 to “just be an ordinary priest.”
After his ordination, he served as a parochial vicar at St. Thomas More and St. Augustine parishes in Washington before he received a career-defining call from the archdiocese in 1992, when the priest was asked to help “bring back to life” St. Martin of Tours Parish as its pastor.
“I prayed and kept feeling a sense of peace. I talked to close friends and everyone I talked to saw an upside to it,” he said, adding that eventually he said “yes.”
Today St. Martin’s Church is known for uplifting worship, vibrant music, and a welcoming atmosphere. The special 11 a.m. anniversary Mass combining the 9 a.m. and noon Masses formed what Father Kelley called “a parish family celebration with all of our music ministries.”
Pews filled with people of diverse ages and ethnicities, from infants in parents’ arms to elders like 105-year-old Evelyn McKenly, a weekly attendee with her daughter Charlene McCuellers.
Gospel choir member Thomasina Nelson sang “Ordinary People,” his favorite song. Her daughter Nova Payton directed the Children’s Choir in singing “Plenty Good Room in My Father’s Kingdom.”
A city proclamation was read, a gift and exhortations from the church were presented, and the priest thanked fellow clergy mentors and parishioners for their support.
“John, I learned more from you than anyone about liturgy, pastoral care and community organizing,” he told Father John Mudd, the former pastor of St. Augustine Parish. He acknowledged Father Michael Bryant for convincing him to become a contract chaplain, a role that “feels like home” and honors the Air Force family he grew up in with his brother Tim.
Parishioners reflected on Father Kelley’s impact on St. Martin of Tours Parish and on their lives and faith.
“He resurrected the church and the community,” declared 83-year-old Earl Washington who came to St. Martin’s at age 14, married and raised a family with his wife Gertrude. Even after moving to Maryland, the couple continued weekly Mass attendance and served in many ministries there.
Roslyn Brown was the parish council president at St. Martin’s when they asked Washington Auxiliary Bishop Leonard Olivier for a new pastor there.
“We were a parish that was hurting,” Brown said. After Father Kelley was recommended, Brown met him at Uno Pizzeria in Union Station. “We closed the place down talking,” she said of the happy meeting. “I told Bishop Olivier, ‘you knocked it out of the park for us!’ He (Father Kelley) was our ‘Balm in Gilead.’”
James Brightful, 70, said he immediately felt “the warmth and family attitude” visiting the church. He learned that 60 percent of members served in at least two ministries of the dozens offered. Hearing Father Kelley speak on a Holy Thursday drew him in for good. Brightful signed up to become a lector, and on that Easter Sunday during the Sign of Peace, Father Kelley called his name and walked up to welcome him.
“I grew up in the Catholic Church and never had a priest call me by my name until Father Kelley,” Brightful said.
Another longtime member, Charlene Fairfax, cited “Father Kelley’s daily demonstration of generosity, hospitality, and compassion” as values that opened her “to demonstrate some of these attributes in my own life.”
“He pushes me to use all the gifts God has given me,” added June Felix, director of the Christian initiation of adults program and the children’s Sunday school there.
His openness also attracted Iowa native David Kuhl and his wife Aysha to the church in 2005. But gratitude and love made the parish home for them following their greatest trial.
In Dec. 2016 the couple welcomed the birth of their first child, Amira. Four months later, she was found unresponsive in her crib and pronounced dead.
“Father Kelley was there counseling us whenever we needed him. He put the church community around us to support us. I will forever be grateful for that,” said Kuhl, who directs the parish’s Information Technology Ministry.
Aysha was later baptized and confirmed in the church. The couple, now in their 40s, are parents to 7-year-old Elliana, baptized Catholic and active in two ministries there.
“When kids were doing sleep-overs, I was at church,” said 37-year-old Nadiath Saibou, who came to St. Martin’s from Benin in West Africa at age 10.
“Seeing Father Kelley be a community leader inspired me to help others in the community. He is very selfless. That’s why my husband and I named our son Michael after him,” she said.
He brings “stability to the church and the community,” noted Kevin Jackson. “That strengthens my soul and my Catholic beliefs, showing me how to become a better person.”
Ministries expanded or founded since Father Kelley’s arrival at St. Martin of Tours include Sodality, RCIA and Teen Catechumenate, IMPAC Retreat, eight Narcotics Anonymous programs, Black & Women’s History, SHARE Food Services, and several annual Food, Clothing and Toy Drives for the needy.
Two notable examples of his community outreach legacy are St. Martin’s Apartments, 184 units of affordable rental housing built by Catholic Charities on a 2.5 acre site donated by the church, and the 31-year-old North Capitol Street & Rhode Island Avenue Ecumenical Council he founded with seven Protestant churches to help drive out an open-air drug market.
“The Holy Spirit gave me this mission and goal in life,” Father Kelley said of his service as a priest in the city of Washington. “That plus 40-years of individual therapy and spiritual direction have helped me stay grounded and useful so I could be a blessing to others.”
The priest added that in his more than three decades as the pastor of St. Martin of Tours Parish, “I can’t say I have ever been bored.”
