Bishop Clarence Kelly (born 1941) is a Traditionalist Catholic bishop. He was ordained a priest on April 13, 1973 at Ecône, Switzerland by Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre for the Roman Catholic Society of St. Pius X.
Kelly eventually became Superior of the Society in the United States. In 1983 Kelly, along with eight other priests, were expelled from the Society because of their refusal to accept the 1962 Roman Missal promulgated by Pope John XXIII as directed by Archbishop Lefebvre as well as for their refusal to celebrate Masses Una cum Ioánne Paulo (II), a sign that the celebrant recognizes the latter as the legitimate Roman Pontiff. These expelled priests formed the de facto sedevacantist Society of St. Pius V (SSPV), which held, that it is, at least, a debatable question whether the popes since 1958 have in fact been legitimate Roman Pontiffs and, subsequently, whether the revisions of the Roman Missal after 1958 were legitimate.
Most of the original and principal priests of the SSPV, including Frs. Daniel Dolan, Donald Sanborn and Anthony Cekada, broke away from the SSPV in part due to Kelly's and others' rejection of the validity of bishops consecrated by or in the lineage of Roman Catholic archbishop Pierre Martin Ngo Dinh Thuc, and because they wanted to start an independent ministry more openly promoting the sedevacantist position. Frs. Sanborn and Dolan themselves have been subsequently consecrated bishops in this Thuc-lineage after previously openly rejecting them. Fr. Clarence Kelly was consecrated a bishop on October 19, 1993 at Carlsbad, California, by Most. Rev. Alfredo Mendez Gonzalez (see [1]), the retired Bishop of Arecibo, Puerto Rico, a claim originally contested by Anthony Cekada and others who had broken away from Kelly and SSPV, but which they now concede.
| Episcopal lineage | |
| Consecrated by: | Alfredo Méndez Gonzalez |
| Consecrator of | |
|---|---|
| Bishop | Date of consecration |
| Joseph Santay | February 28, 2007 |