Remembering Perham missionary priest and martyr Father John Kaiser 25 years after death

By Elizabeth Brown

This article first appeared in “MISSION CONNECTIONS,” a publication of the St. Cloud Mission Office. 

“I have no intention of leaving this parish of the diocese voluntarily or to go underground. Since I have been threatened before… I want all to know that if I disappear from the scene because the bush is vast and hyenas many, that I am not planning any accident, nor, God forbid, any self destruction. Instead, I trust in a good guardian angel and the action of grace.”
(Father. John Kaiser, 1995)

In the 25 years since the brutal murder of Father John Kaiser, mourners from around the world continue to express every emotion you can imagine from deep sadness and pain to vengeful anger and hatred but also great honor, respect and love for one of our own missioners who willingly chose to speak out boldly and prophetically for the hundreds of thousands of his people who were voiceless against the injustices of a corrupt government and country.

Mill Hill Missionary Father John Anthony Kaiser was born in Perham on Nov. 29, 1932, into a family of four children– three boys and one girl. The missionary priest grew up in St. James Parish in the Underwood/Maine Township in Otter Tail County. He attended Saint John’s Preparatory School and Saint John’s University in Collegeville (1951-1953). After graduating, John enlisted in the U.S. Army (1954-1957) and achieved the rank of sergeant in the paratroopers.

He joined the Mill Hill Missionaries in Mill Hill England – an International Catholic Missionary Society and studied Philosophy and Theology. Father John also studied philosophy at St. Louis University in St. Louis, Missouri, for two years. He was ordained a priest in St. Louis in 1964 in the Mill Hill order and assigned to the Kisii Diocese in Western Kenya where he ministered for 36 years except for a brief period when he did vocation work in New York City.

Father John was first known as “Father Seven Oxen” because of his physical strength and later they would call him “Rhino” because he was tough and stubborn. He criticized government officials and ministers on many occasions, most notably when giving evidence to a commission of inquiry into politically motivated tribal clashes in the Rift Valley province. He challenged the government on corruption of land grabbing and excess as well as countless rapes of minors by local Kenyan politicians and dared to testify publicly about these issues. In the few years before his death, he would become the “Key” or the “Voice of the People,” unafraid to speak out against the corruption that permeated the Kenyan government.

Throughout his 36 year ministry in Kenya, Father John was an outspoken champion of the rights of the poor and the marginalized, especially the rights of women. In 1998, The Kenya Law Society recognized Father John for distinguished service in the promotion of human rights. Father John was 67 years old when he died that early morning of August 24, 2000. He was found in a roadside ditch with a shotgun
wound to the back of his head 40 miles west of Nairobi, Kenya. Just as he so bravely stated shortly before his death, Father John has not left his parish that he found so beautiful nor the people he loved so deeply for he remains to this day their guardian angel and bearer of grace.

A memorial Mass for Father Kaiser will be held Sunday, Aug. 24 at 8:30 a.m. at his home parish, St. James Parish in Maine Township.

“Nobody will ever frighten me out of my priestly obligation of condemning injustices and evil even if it means being persecuted by those who thrive on earthly powers.”
(Father John Kaiser, 11/25/99)

Elizabeth Brown is the director of the St. Cloud Mission Office. Photos courtesy of the St. Cloud Mission Office.