Briggs, Kenneth Arthur 1941–

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Briggs, Kenneth Arthur 1941–

PERSONAL:

Born April 8, 1941, in Gardner, MA; son of Clayton Walter and Dora Adele Briggs; married Kathryn Louise Kent, December 29, 1966; children: Matthew Thomas. Education: Bowdoin College, A.B., 1963; Yale University, B.D., 1967.

ADDRESSES:

Office—New York Times, 229 W. 43rd St., New York, NY 11203.

CAREER:

Ordained Methodist minister, 1967; assistant pastor of United Methodist church in Hempstead, NY, 1967-69; Newsday, Garden City, NY, religion writer, 1970-74; New York Times, New York, NY, religion writer, 1974—.

MEMBER:

Religion Newswriters Association, Alpha Delta Phi.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Supple Memorial Award from Religion Newswriters Association, 1972.

WRITINGS:

Holy Siege: The Year that Shook Catholic America, Harper (San Francisco, CA), 1992.

Double Crossed: Uncovering the Catholic Church's Betrayal of American Nuns, Doubleday (New York, NY), 2006.

The Power of Forgiveness, Fortress Press (Minneapolis, MN), 2008.

SIDELIGHTS:

Kenneth Arthur Briggs was ordained a Methodist minister in 1967, after which he served for several years as a pastor before becoming a religion writer, first for Newsday and then for the New York Times. He is also the author of Holy Siege: The Year that Shook Catholic America, Double Crossed: Uncovering the Catholic Church's Betrayal of American Nuns, and The Power of Forgiveness. Double Crossed takes a look at the dwindling number of Catholic nuns in the United States and attempts to determine the cause for the decline. Briggs spent eight years researching the book, interviewing numerous nuns, many of whom had been with the Church since before the upheaval of the Second Vatican Council in the 1960s. He addresses what he considers the primary reasons for the decline in the number of nuns, including the historical hostility of the Church toward its female members, the Vatican II reforms, and the Church's refusal to allow the nuns themselves to participate in the reformation process or to institute changes of their own. Margaret Brennan, in a review for the U.S. Catholic, opined that "Briggs's thesis is well-intentioned but somewhat simplistic in its final analysis." Anna M. Donnelly, however, writing for the Library Journal, found the book "a clear account and documentation of the sisters' efforts to assume a more equitable place within the Church."