Church acknowledges priest's daughter after DNA first

The Catholic Church has acknowledged one of its priests fathered a child, after his daughter used high-level DNA testing to legally prove her identity in an Australian first.

South Australian woman Linda Kelly-Lawless has been campaigning for six-and-a-half years for the Catholic Church to recognise that she is the daughter of Victorian priest, Father Joseph Kelly, who died in 1989.

After the church told her she would need to exhume her father's body to prove paternity, she undertook autosomal DNA testing - using DNA from the priest's living relatives.

The test results from US company Parabon NanLabs was then presented to NSW Births, Deaths and Marriages.

"I was the first person in Australia to do this test for paternity. It's also used for cold-case files," the Mt Gambier resident said.

"NSW Births, Deaths and Marriages have re-issued my birth certificate with Joseph Kelly as my father. So by law, he is my father.

"I believe that this (legal recognition) can help adoptees, and people who don't know who their father is, or want to reclaim their identity legally, like I've done. It's a first."

In April 2023, Melbourne Archbishop Peter Comensoli wrote to Ms Kelly-Lawless and suggested an exhumation of Fr Kelly's body was necessary for the church to officially recognise him as her father.

She subsequently supplied the church with a genetic family tree produced from the autosomal DNA testing, and affidavits and statutory declarations from people who knew her father, leading to a meeting with the archbishop.

"I had legal DNA testing with Parabon in America, and a cousin from my grandfather's side and a cousin from my grandmother's side came forward," she said.

"The results came back that I was 99 per cent related to both of them."

In a letter to Ms Kelly-Lawless dated April 8, 2025, Archbishop Comensoli wrote: "In response to your requests, I offer the following: From the materials that you have presented, I want to assure you that I believe that Fr Kelly was your biological father."

The archdiocese did not respond to requests from AAP to confirm the letter constituted formal recognition of paternity.

Ms Kelly-Lawless, who was born in 1962, said her mother had a relationship with Fr Kelly in Melbourne.

"It was a hidden secret and my mother took it with her to the grave," she said.

"I did my DNA with Ancestry.com and then this led to the family secret and my aunt told me who my father was. I then decided to ask the church for recognition in 2018 and the church would not acknowledge me."

Ms Kelly-Lawless said her fight for recognition had been "a long haul".

This was not about winning, it was about the church doing the right thing, she said, and also hoped it would apologise for the way her mother was treated.

"It's been very traumatic and I understand why people walk away from the church," she said.

"But I had to correct the wrongs that were done in the past.

"You just don't tell people that your father's a Catholic priest. Not in the 1960s, not even now. And the reaction from my mother when it was ever discussed was sheer terror."