Robert F. Taft

Robert Francis Taft, S.J. (born January 9, 1932) is an American Jesuit priest and archimandrite of the Eastern Catholic Church, who is an expert in Oriental liturgy and a professor emeritus of the Pontifical Oriental Institute in Rome, of which he was the Vice-rector between 1995 and 2001.

Biography

Taft was born in Providence, Rhode Island, into the Taft family notable for their contribution to American politics. Taft entered the novitiate of the Society of Jesus on 14 August 1949.<ref name=WB / He did his initial spiritual and academic training in philosophy at the former Weston College in Weston, Massachusetts. During his period of regency that followed, he taught for three years at Baghdad Jesuit University, later Al-Hikma University (1956–1959). It was there that he developed his interest in Eastern Christian religious traditions. He returned to the United States in 1959 and pursued a graduate degree in Russian at Fordham University. He was ordained a priest of the Byzantine Rite on June 7, 1963.