By Archbishop Thomas Wenski - The Archdiocese of Miami
Archbishop Thomas Wenski's homily at Memorial Mass for Msgr. Vincent Kelly at St. Thomas Aquinas High School. August 20, 2026.
Msgr. Vincent Kelly was a priest for almost 70 years – over those 70 years he served as a teacher, a parochial vicar, a principal, a pastor, and superintendent of schools. He was an advisor to four bishops, including this one. He did a lot; he touched many lives. But his greatest joy, his greatest love was this school, its students and their families, and of course Mrs. Aloma and the teachers. Since 1970 when he first set foot on this campus as principal, you were his family! It is hard to think about St. Thomas Aquinas High School without thinking about Rev. Msgr. Vincent Kelly. And you can’t think about Msgr. Kelly without thinking about St. Thomas Aquinas. He was also the longtime leader of Catholic education in the Archdiocese of Miami whose vision shaped generations of students, teachers and school leaders over more than three decades. He was a leader but a servant leader. He was humble – what he did was never about himself but about you.
Now when someone who was blessed with a long life goes home to the Lord, he will have more friends on the other side to welcome him than on this side to bid him farewell. And as a priest and educator he touched many lives. And those of us here today who bid farewell to him and pray for the repose of his soul are just a representative number of the many thousand he influenced.
Msgr. Kelly had plans to go to Ireland in July, but God had a better plan for him: calling him home after 92 years on June 30th. His funeral, at St. John the Baptist Parish where he was pastor for many years as well, took place in early July – when many of us were out of town on vacation. In Ireland, there is a custom called the “month’s mind” – a Mass is offered for the departed one month after their passing. Today’s Mass is sort of a “month’s mind” and allows those of us who could not be at the funeral Mass in July to remember Msgr. Kelly before the Lord in prayer.
In our gospel reading, Jesus gives us the “Beatitudes”. “Happy those who” … or “Blessed those who” depending on the translation.
And so it is that when we are “poor in spirit” - totally trusting and dependent on God; when we allow God to comfort us when we “mourn”; when we are “meek” - living with gentle strength; when we “hunger and thirst for righteousness” - striving to live in right relationship with God, all others and ourselves; when we are “merciful” to all; when we are “clean of heart” - thinking, feeling and acting with purity and honesty; when we are “peacemakers” - praying and working for peace within ourselves, within our families, within our nation and within our world; and when we are persecuted for faithfully living out these Beatitudes, then let us “rejoice and be glad” for our reward will be great in heaven!
Today, we pray that Msgr. Kelly is rejoicing and is glad in heaven where the Lord will welcome him saying: “Well done, good and faithful servant"
Pope Francis, who as a Jesuit priest taught school, once said something which I think well summarizes Msgr. Kelly’s vision of Catholic education which should continue to inspire the administration and teaching staff of this school. The Pope said, “Our generation will show that it can rise to the promise found in each young person when we know how to give them space. This means that we have to create the material and spiritual conditions for their full development; to give them a solid basis on which to build their lives; to guarantee their safety and their education to be everything they can be.”
In our hearts, you and I long for joy, that joy to the full that Jesus promises us, the joy that only he can give us. And the Beatitudes teach us the way to that joy or blessedness!
If you want to live a life of significance as Msgr. Kelly did, if you want to be truly happy, then make the “beatitudes” your attitudes.
Eternal Rest grant unto him, O Lord: may his soul and souls of all the faithful departed, rest in peace. Amen.
