Fr. Edward J. Kelley

Included in the 3/4/2026 RI Attorney General’s Report, which shows Kelley to be the subject of allegations of the sexual abuse of three children. The Diocese was aware in 1978 of Kelley’s “moral problems.” As a result, he was assigned as a hospital chaplain for a short while, then returned to parish ministry. In 1979 the parents of a teenage boy asked that Kelley meet with their son only in public spaces or with others present, and not one-on-one. In 1982 Kelley became the legal guardian of a 14-year-old boy, who stayed with him in the rectory. Kelley resigned from St. Aidan’s in Cumberland in 1992 because of “divisiveness” in the parish over his “leadership style.” He left RI in 1993 and became a U.S. Army chaplain. In 1994 the Diocese and the East Providence Police Department received a report that Kelley sexually abused a boy over six years, beginning when the boy was 14-years-old in 1976. The abuse allegedly included rape. The boy knew Kelley through the Boy Scouts and said that other boy scouts regularly visited Kelley’s home. This accuser died by suicide in 1997. The third allegation was reported anonymously to the Attorney General’s Office in 2002. The Diocese was informed. In 5/2021 Kelley was arrested in SC for the alleged sexual assault of a boy in 1983 in North Smithfield RI. In 7/2021 he was reportedly being held at Eleanor Slater Hospital in RI, where he was to be evaluated. Kelley’s accuser said he lived in rectories with Kelley as a boy in the 1980s, that it had been reported to diocesan officials, but that he continued living with Kelley. Further, he said another boy who was “close” to Kelley as a boy died by suicide in adulthood. Kelley was removed from ministry in Charleston SC in 2015 due to a relationship with an adult woman. He was ruled incompetent to stand trial in 2/2022, due to advanced dementia, and died 9/26/2022. Included in 2/2026 on the Providence diocese’s list of credibly accused.