George Anthony Kelly

George Anthony Kelly was born in New York. In 1942 he was ordained as a Catholic priest. He then went to Catholic University in Washington, D.C., and went on to receive a Ph.D. in social science. In 1945 he returned to New York City to work in a parish. He began to write a labor column for The Catholic News. In 1955, he was appointed Family Life director for his the archdiocese. In 1958 he published his most popular book, Catholic Marriage Manual, and followed it in 1960 with the Catholic Youth's Guide to Life and Love. In 1966, he was appointed Secretary of Education for the Catholic schools in the Archdiocese of New York and the Diocese of Brooklyn, which together were the third-largest education system in the United States. In 1977, he co-founded the Fellowship of Catholic Scholars. In 2003 he was invited to take a new position at St. John's University as chair in contemporary Catholic problems.