He was educated at St. Dunstan's College, Prince Edward Island, and ordained a priest for the diocese of Detroit, Michigan, in 1893.

Kelley served as vice commander general of the Military Order of Foreign Wars, a veterans' group, for five years.

[1] While pastor in Lapeer, Michigan in 1905, he founded the Catholic Church Extension Society of the United States with the help of James Edward Quigley, Archbishop of Chicago.

Two years after the war, Kelley was sent to England by the Vatican to settle postwar differences over German and American missions.

Like other missionary dioceses in the country, Oklahoma received funds from the Catholic Extension to build and to furnish churches.

Under his leadership the Catholic Committee expanded to include 22 Archbishops and Bishops, one from each Ecclesiastical Province in the United States.