25-11-1952 – 10-04-2025.
He was born on the 25 November 1952, in Greenside, outside Newcastle, in what was then County Durham. He was the second of four children born to Alfred William Kelly and Mary Kelly, nee Dempsey. The family was Catholic, and he always remained attached to it.
He was baptised on 30th November 1952 and confirmed on 25 March 1964.
He thought of being a priest from the age of 7. His secondary education was at the Junior Seminary of Ushaw, which he entered in 1964. At the end of his time there, though, he looked towards a secular career. After a brief attempt at accountancy, he opted for Nursing and trained as an SRN in Edinburgh. He began work as a District Nurse in Gloucestershire, living in Cheltenham, and it was while there that the thought of the priesthood resurfaced. A weekend retreat at Prinknash Abbey proved decisive.
He entered Allen Hall, the seminary for the Archdiocese of Westminster, in 1978. However, the pull of his native land led to him transferring to Ushaw College in 1980 and becoming a seminarian of the diocese of Hexham and Newcastle. He was ordained deacon on 3 July 1982 and priest on 5 November 1983.
He served a variety of parishes in the diocese for some 27 years, including in Darlington, Sunderland and Bishop Auckland. An appointment to a group of parishes in and around Sunderland proved difficult in 2010, and he asked for a sabbatical. He took this at Pluscarden Abbey to which he was a frequent visitor. Discussions with the then Abbot as well as with Bishop Peter Moran led to a temporary appointment to the parish of Kirkwall in the Orkney archipelago. With permission from his own Bishop, this was subsequently extended, and he became parish priest there for some 9 years. In 2020 he moved to Deeside, with its two parishes of Banchory and Upper Deeside. In September 2020 he was incardinated in the diocese of Aberdeen.
In 2024, he received a surprising diagnosis of secondary cancer. This eventually proved unresponsive to treatment and he had to resign as parish priest. On 10 April 2025, he died at Kincardine Community Hospital in Stonehaven. Poignantly, it was the day the diocese was celebrating the Chrism Mass. Priesthood was the very core of Fr Peter’s being and life. Uncomfortable with committees and church councils, he had a wide heart for individuals, was a devoted visitor, a committed celebrant of reverent liturgies and a thoughtful homilist. He inspired affection and respect among those to whom he ministered and was deeply moved by the care his parishioners showed him in his last months.
At his request his funeral and burial took place on 23 April 2025, during the Easter Octave, at his beloved Pluscarden Abbey.
Bishop Hugh Gilbert OSB
