THE SOCIETY OF CATHOLIC SOCIAL SCIENTISTS
Friday and Saturday, October 26-27, 2007
The St. John’s University School of Law
Msgr. George P. Graham
St. Bernard’s Catholic Church
3100 Hempstead Turnpike
Levittown, NY 11756
516-579-5304
Georgepgraham@aol.com
George P. Graham was born in Brooklyn and was ordained for the Diocese of Brooklyn in 1952. When the diocese was split in 1957, he was assigned to the Diocese of Rockville Centre, and he served as Vice Chancellor from 1957 to 1964.
From 1964 to 1967 he was sent to The Catholic University of America to get a doctorate in Canon Law. When he returned to the diocese, he was assigned to the diocesan tribunal, and he was the Chief Judge from 1971 to 1981.
He served as Pastor of St. Bernard Parish of Levittown from 1981 to 2001.
Msgr. Graham received his Ph.D. degree form New York University in 1988 in religious education and religious studies. He has taught at St. John’s University, Molloy College, and the Institute for Religious Studies at St. Joseph’s Seminary, Dunwoodie.
He has published a book, William James the Affirmation of God (Peter Lang, 1992). He has also published articles in the Homiletic and Pastoral Review, The Jurist, Lay Witness, and the Catholic Social Science Review.
Abstract
Msgr. George A. Kelly was born in 1916. He was ordained for the Archdiocese of New York in 1942. He was then sent to The Catholic University of America, where he obtained a Ph.D. in sociology in 1946. He served as an assistant at St. Monica’s Parish in the Upper East Side and then, later, as Pastor of St. John the Evangelist Church on East 55th Street. He was director of the archdiocesan Family Life Bureau (1955-1965). He was a member of the Papal Birth Control Commission appointed by Blessed Pope John XXIII, and he became a Consultor of the Holy See’s Congregation for the Clergy. He was Secretary for Education in the Archdiocese of New York from 1966 to 1970.
When Fr. Joseph Cahill, C.M. was President of St. John’s University, he invited Msgr. Kelly to take the new university chair in contemporary catholic problems. At St. John’s he established The Institute for Advanced Studies in Catholic Doctrine. Msgr. Kelly was the founder of the Fellowship of Catholic Scholars. He published about three dozen books. The Catholic Marriage Manual earned him about a quarter of a million dollars in 1958. He donated the entire proceeds to the New York Foundling Hospital. His book, The Battle for the American Church was a very important contribution to an understanding of the Church in the United States after the II Vatican Council.
The proceedings from the 27th Annual Convention of the Fellowship of Catholic Scholars 2004, The Church, Marriage, and the Family, included a long tribute as a memorial to Msgr. Kelly, written by several close friends and associates.