Geoffrey Cobb<\/a><\/p>\nMsgr. James Kelly, the 87-year-old pastor emeritus of St. Brigid\u2019s Parish in Bushwick, Brooklyn, got some long overdue attention in 2025. In May, Saint John\u2019s University conferred an honorary degree on him and the Great Irish Fair named him as their Fr. Mychal Judge Award recipient; meanwhile, the New York Times did a feature article on the Adare, Co. Limerick-born priest. RTE and the Tablet have also covered Msrg. Kelly, who has served the people of Bushwick for an amazing 65 years. \u00a0 \u00a0<\/p>\n
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Kelly\u2019s biography is intertwined with Bushwick\u2019s turbulent history. When Msgr. Kelly arrived in Bushwick in 1960 the area was vastly different. Bushwick was middle class and 90 percent Caucasian. St. Brigid\u2019s parish was mostly German with some Sicilians. Kelly was assigned to the parish in part because of his fluency in the Italian and German languages. White flight, however, would totally transform the area in the late 1960s and \u201870s into an enclave of African Americans and Hispanics.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Monsignor Kelly became pastor of St. Brigid\u2019s in 1977, the same year Bushwick made national headlines when a power blackout led to widespread looting of the area\u2019s retailers. Arson soon became a common occurrence after the blackout, and the area became one of the most dangerous areas in the city, where gang violence and drug use became common. \u00a0Kelly was even attacked inside his rectory by a robber whose punches left Msgr. Kelly with two facial fractures and his right eye swollen shut. ”I looked like I was in Mel Gibson’s ‘The Passion of the Christ,”’ Monsignor Kelly said. ”I was bloody all over.”\u00a0<\/p>\n
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Limerick native Msgr. James Kelly qualified as a lawyer so he could better assist the foreign-born residents of Brooklyn.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The neighborhood today is home to Brooklyn’s largest Hispanic community and includes residents from Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, Mexico, and Ecuador. Monsignor Kelly learned Spanish and has become something of a celebrity in the area. \u00a0Poverty is still common in Bushwick and Kelly\u2019s ministry has been heavily involved with social justice for the underprivileged. Patrick Farrelly, a documentary filmmaker who has known him since the 1980’s called Msgr. Kelly, \u201cthe padre of the poor.\u201d \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Kelly\u2019s work has extended beyond the walls of the church. He set up District 3 Immigration Services to help Bushwick\u2019s massive immigrant population. Msgr. Kelly supported immigrants, often accompanying them to their court hearings for citizenship. He noted, however, that advocating for the immigrants without a law degree was a challenge. \u201cOnce you had your law degree, you could say whatever you like,\u201d Msgr. Kelly said. \u201cBut without a law degree, the judge wouldn\u2019t even listen to you.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
The priest earned his law degree from St. John\u2019s in 1980, which enabled him to go to court and represent immigrants, largely pro bono clients. He has helped tens of thousands of people become legal residents of the United States. Though he has retired from his parish and no longer represents clients in court, Msgr. Kelly is still in his office six days a week. After the recent New York Times piece, many of the clients he helped contacted him and some sent donations. Some have become successful in medicine or law. \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<\/p>\n
The monsignor notices a completely different climate for undocumented immigrants today. In his 65 years in the job, Kelly said this is the worst atmosphere he had known for undocumented immigrants. \u201cWhen the Italians came in 1968, they were very benign to them,” he said, “because they were victims of an earthquake.\u201d It was easy to adjust their status he said, as it was with the undocumented Irish. Some of the judges who judged Kelly\u2019s cases had Irish surnames and were sympathetic to the plight of undocumented people. \u00a0<\/p>\n
Kelly works only with clients whose cases are likely to be approved, to avoid giving false hope. He said his office can charge less because he takes no salary, and his workers are not paid \u201ctop dollar,\u201d and could make more money elsewhere. His office sees between 50 to 100 clients daily. \u00a0Kelly noted that many of his clients live in fear of deportation. \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Msgr. Kelly, an Irish speaker and former hurler, said he expects to continue helping people as long as he can. \u201cIf I\u2019m alive,\u201d he said with a chuckle, \u201cI\u2019m here.\u201d \u00a0Kelly has established a team to help him in his work. His 26-year-old assistant is Princess Reinoso, an Ecuadorian-American whose parents Kelly helped to legalize their stay in the United States. \u00a0Kelly praised Reinoso as \u201csomeone with an excellent legal mind.\u201d The team members believe they will have plenty of work in the coming years. Team member Richard Reinoso, Princess\u2019s brother, hopes to become a lawyer and continue Msgr. Kelly\u2019s legacy. \u201cHe\u2019s been doing this for as long as anyone can remember, and he has been doing it for the entire community,\u201d Richard said. \u201cI was born here, but I still understand how important it is to know our privileges, to check our rights, and then make sure that we give everybody the same opportunity for life, liberty, and happiness.\u201d \u00a0<\/p>\n
When asked what the future held in store for undocumented immigrants Kelly replied, “Only God knows. God,” he said, “and Mr. Trump.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The District Three Immigration Services storefront in Bushwick. [The Tablet] December 24, 2025 by Geoffrey Cobb Msgr. James…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":80329,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[98,100,99,7871,9,24,63],"class_list":{"0":"post-80328","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-brooklyn","8":"tag-brooklyn","9":"tag-brooklyn-headlines","10":"tag-brooklyn-news","11":"tag-irishecho","12":"tag-new-york","13":"tag-new-york-city","14":"tag-nyc"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80328","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=80328"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80328\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/80329"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=80328"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=80328"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=80328"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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