Msgr. Francis D. Kelly, a retired priest of the Worcester Diocese, received one of the second annual Pacem in Terris Awards from Pope St. John XXIII National Seminary in Weston Sept. 25.
“It was a wonderful reminder of my 13 years of my priesthood there,” Msgr. Kelly told The Catholic Free Press, commenting about working with wonderful seminarians. He was appointed to the faculty there in 1992, and in 1994 was named rector, a position he held for 11 years.
Pope St. John XXIII’s encyclical Pacem in Terris, issued in 1963, shares a message about universal peace and justice on the basis of respect for human dignity.
For the encyclical’s 60th anniversary in 2023, Pope St. John XXIII seminary established the Pacem in Terris Award.
Recipients are people who exemplify his spirit by how they live and by how they support the seminary’s mission “to form mature men in service to all people throughout the world,” says psjs.edu/blog/pacem-terris-award-lawn-party-recipients-announced.
The clergyman and lay person awarded each year are to be ones who demonstrate generosity, humility, kindness, fidelity, and charity.
Last year’s award recipients were Cardinal Seán P. O’Malley, OFM Cap., then archbishop of Boston, and Anna-Marie Ferraro, a longtime supporter of the seminary.
This year’s recipient, along with Msgr. Kelly, was James J. Mahoney Jr. of Dedham, a former trustee and development chairman for the seminary, who was “very instrumental in [its] progressive fiscal health and marketing success.”
The awards are given at the Annual Lawn Party fundraiser, which celebrates the opening of the formation year and gives supporters a chance to meet the seminarians and alumni an opportunity to reconnect.
“Fittingly for a Pacem in Terris recipient, [Msgr. Kelly’s] doctoral dissertation at Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., was on ‘Catechesis of International Peace,’” said the seminary’s website.
He “embodies the core of the Pacem in Terris spirit. An article written for The Catholic Free Press newspaper in Worcester once quoted him as saying [that] the key to becoming a good priest isn’t complicated. ‘Friendship with Jesus Christ. It’s as simple as that.’”
In a brief biography the website said, “Msgr. Kelly’s commendable work has taken him from Worcester to Weston, to Washington, D.C., to Rome, and back again to Worcester.”
The website noted that he was executive director of the Department of Religious Education at the National Catholic Educational Association in Washington, D.C., for 12 years and superior at Casa Santa Maria, a house for English-speaking priests pursuing graduate studies at the Pontifical North American College in Rome.
In 2013, Pope Benedict XVI named him a Canon of St. Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican, which involved prayer and celebrating Masses. After he returned to the Worcester Diocese during the coronavirus pandemic, Pope Francis made him a Canon for life.
Msgr. Kelly, who is also an author of spiritual books, now gives conferences and lectures about spirituality at Southgate at Shrewsbury, the retirement community where he lives, the website said.