From the Archives

Francis Clement Kelley was an extremely talented priest and visionary. His gifts were not always appreciated by the clergy when he arrived as the new bishop in Oklahoma in 1924. 

The clergy were primarily European – predominantly Belgian and Dutch – and native-born priests were scarce. Many had served in the frontier areas where little if any contact with the bishop happened on a regular basis, which spurred a certain independence.

Father David Monahan recalled in 1975: “They were sometimes rowdy. Some had adopted course mannerisms as a result of service in areas that put little stock in gentility. Conforming to rules was not the strong point of the Oklahoma Catholic clergy in general. They were proud of their faithful service to the Gospel and the Church.”

Naturally, there was some friction between the established missionary priests and the new bishop. Kelley had just spent nearly 20 years in the Archdiocese of Chicago as the head of the Catholic Church Extension Society, a diocese well established and lacking in the “wild west” mentality and eccentricities of his new assignment in Oklahoma. 

Bishop Kelley also became miffed at the priests who found the funds to return to Europe on vacation but did not see the need to pay their quotas to keep the diocese operating. In a letter he wrote during the height of the Depression to the clergy, he stated: “What is not paid must be made up some way by the bishop himself. I am getting too old to be running around the country lecturing, preaching retreats, etc., in order to live and run the diocese.”

Funds were scarce and he struggled to keep the diocese afloat. He took no salary and kept his expenses to a minimum. The seeming indifference of the clergy to his welfare deepened his distrust and the clergy grumbled at his extended absences from the diocese (ironically his absences were to raise money).

He began to cultivate his own clergy that were a bit more in tune with his style. Home grown talent such as Father Victor Reed (later bishop), Father Steven Leven (also a future bishop), Father Sylvester Luecke, Father Raymond Harkin, Father Cecil Finn and Father Donald Kanally were a few of the star clerics that would lead the Church in Oklahoma out of her infancy to a growing maturity. 

All were the kind of men Kelley admired: bright, capable and more aware of the changing climate as to the place of the Catholic faith in Oklahoma. They were indeed Kelley’s priests.

In fairness, the contribution of their predecessors cannot be diminished as they were the foundation for what the Church has become and their colorful nature a source of pride and amusement. They laid the cornerstone from which future generations benefitted.