Robert Blair Kaiser (January 11, 1931 – April 2, 2015) was an American author and journalist, best known for his writing on the

Catholic Church The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

Biography

Kaiser trained as a

Jesuit , image = Ihs-logo.svg , image_size = 175px , caption = ChristogramOfficial seal of the Jesuits , abbreviation = SJ , nickname = Jesuits , formation = , founders ...

from 1949 to 1959. He left the order and his intention to be ordained to the priesthood, to become a journalist and to marry. As a correspondent for ''

Time Magazine ''Time'' (stylized in all caps) is an American news magazine based in New York City. For nearly a century, it was published weekly, but starting in March 2020 it transitioned to every other week. It was first published in New York City on Mar ...

'', he won the Overseas Press Club's Ed Cunningham Award in 1962 for the "best magazine reporting from abroad" for his reporting on the

Second Vatican Council The Second Ecumenical Council of the Vatican, commonly known as the , or , was the 21st Catholic ecumenical councils, ecumenical council of the Roman Catholic Church. The council met in St. Peter's Basilica in Rome for four periods (or sessions) ...

. From 1981 until 1983, Kaiser was the Chairman of the University of Nevada's Journalism Department in Reno. Rapid growth of the department, prior to becoming an independent school from the College of Arts and Science, happened under Kaiser's tenure. Four of his sixteen published books deal with Catholic Church reform. His latest books include ''A Church in Search of Itself:

Benedict XVI Pope Benedict XVI ( la, Benedictus XVI; it, Benedetto XVI; german: link=no, Benedikt XVI.; born Joseph Aloisius Ratzinger, , on 16 April 1927) is a retired prelate of the Catholic church who served as the head of the Church and the sovereign ...

and the Battle for the Future'' and ''Cardinal Mahony: A Novel''. A new version of his 1970 best seller, ''R.F.K. Must Die!'' was published in 2008, with a new sub-title, ''Chasing the Mystery of the Robert Kennedy Assassination''. Kaiser's speech in Ireland on August 19, 2010, at the Humbert Summer School, entitled "Catholic Church Reform: No More Thrones," called for

Irish Catholics Irish Catholics are an ethnoreligious group native to Ireland whose members are both Catholic and Irish. They have a large diaspora, which includes over 36 million American citizens and over 14 million British citizens (a quarter of the British ...

to boldly initiate an ecclesiastical revolution through which they would remove secretive hierarchy, take back their cathedrals, and elect their own bishops. He was co-founder of takebackourchurch.org, a web community of American Catholics seeking "ownership and citizenship in the people's church envisioned at Vatican II", Catholic Church Reform International and on the Board of Directors of Catholic Church Reform International.

Partial bibliography

*''A Church in Search of Itself: Benedict XVI and the Battle for the Future'' (2006) *''Clerical Error: A True Story'' (2002) *''The Encyclical That Never Was: The Story of the Commission on Population, Family and Birth, 1964-66'' (1987) *''The Politics of Sex and Religion: A Case History in the Development of Doctrine, 1962-1984'' (1985) *''Pope, Council, and World: The Story of Vatican II'' (1963) *''R.F.K. Must Die! Chasing the Mystery of the

Robert Kennedy Assassination On June 5, 1968, Robert F. Kennedy was shot by Sirhan Sirhan shortly after midnight at the Ambassador Hotel, Los Angeles. He was pronounced dead at 1:44 a.m. PDT the following day. Kennedy was a senator from New York and a candidate in ...

'' (2008) *'' Cardinal Mahony: A Novel'' 2008 *''Inside the Jesuits: How

Pope Francis Pope Francis ( la, Franciscus; it, Francesco; es, link=, Francisco; born Jorge Mario Bergoglio, 17 December 1936) is the head of the Catholic Church. He has been the bishop of Rome and sovereign of the Vatican City State since 13 March 2013. ...

is Changing the Church and the World'' (2014) *''Whistle:

Tom Doyle Thomas Joseph Doyle (born 30 June 1992) is a New Zealand international footballer who currently plays as a left back for Bay Olympic in the Northern League. Doyle made his senior professional debut for Wellington Phoenix FC in the 2014 FFA Cu ...

's Steadfast Witness For Victims of Clerical Sexual Abuse'' (2015)

References

External links

Robert Blair Kaiser Papers at University of Notre Dame, Indiana

Find A Grave Memorial
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kaiser, Robert Blair 1931 births 2015 deaths American male journalists American Roman Catholics Former Jesuits 20th-century American Jesuits 21st-century American Jesuits