Rev. Robert Chapman Kirk Is Actually Mr Reggie Littlejohn

Slightly more material on Rev. Mr. Robert Chapman Kirk is in the current Ordinariate Observer (p 14), which is in the mail. It's been quite a challenge to find information on the man, partly because up to his ordination, he went by "Rob Kirk". Searches on that name with Methodist are somewhat more productive. It appears that as a United Methodist pastor, he went by Rob pretty much exclusively, and "Robert Kirk" seems to be his new name as a Catholic priest. But far, far more productive are web searches for his wife, who currently goes by Reggie Littlejohn.

There are several observations to make here. Numerous online bios of Ms Littlejohn say that she and her husband, now-Fr Kirk, were "college sweethearts", which would make them roughly equal in age. The current issue of Ordinariate Observer (p 14) says Kirk is 63. But the recent photo of Ms Littlejohn at left shows an apparently much younger woman, although Kirk's account there places them both in graduate school together as well. The explanation, of course, is the miracle of modern cosmetic surgery, which, considering the appearance of Ms Littlejohn's neck, chin, eyes, and likely much else, is one giant leap for mankind.

The San Jose Mercury News story I linked yesterday says, "Kirk is married to Gina Giannini and has a son who will graduate from Harvard this spring." This had several of us stumped for some hours until a visitor commented,

It just occurred to me that Giannini could be translated roughly as "Little John," and Gina might be short for Regina, hence Reggie. It seems odd that she has an alias, but I guess that is par for the course!

Actually, it seems like Ms Littlejohn has reinvented herself several times, and her current persona, a jet-setting do-gooder, has been carefully groomed -- but there's no historical evidence for anyone named Reggie Littlejohn prior to about 2009. Via Ancestry.com, I find a Gina Giannini in a yearbook for Archbishop Mitty High School in San Jose, CA for 1978, which would place her age in the general range for Fr Kirk's 63. But other online accounts of her, here and here, as Reggie say she was either a "litigation associate" or a "supervising attorney" in a major San Francisco law firm up to about 2003.

I can reasonably assume that a litigator with a major San Francisco law firm would be a member of the California bar. The California Bar Association has a page where you can look up anyone's status there just with a name search -- this includes active, inactive, and deceased members. Just to double-check, I found my wife there, who, now retired, is listed as "inactive". So I did searches on various combinations of the name Giannini, Littlejohn, Kirk, Reggie, and Gina, and found nothing -- even if she were "inactive", her name would appear with that status. UPDATE: Regina Maria Giannini is listed as an active member of the California bar.

The online bios refer, without too much specificity (for instance here), to a period of illness beginning about 2003,

. . . she contracted an MRSA staph infection, which is often deadly. She left the practice of law on a medical leave of absence and was disabled for five years. During that 5-year period, Littlejohn had to undergo several surgeries and developed chronic fatigue syndrome as well.

She says basically, though again without much specificity, that she emerged from this five-year period with a new sense of purpose, and it would seem as well as with the new Reggie Littlejohn persona and a whole new face. Almost immediately, she became a major player in Catholic NGO and non-profit circles. The photo of her with the Holy Father dates from 2013, and the press release that accompanies it says,

Littlejohn was also the featured speaker at the Rome premiere of the “It’s a Girl” film about gendercide and forced abortion in India and China. She had previously spoken — together with filmmakers Evan Grae Davis and Andrew Brown — at the premieres of the film at the European and British Parliaments, as well as at the United States Capitol.

Her activities in subsequent years involve an equivalent whirl of global travel, media appearances, and massive self-promotion. Several questions come up for me. The biggest is that Fr Rob is quite clearly a tiny asteroid in distant orbit around a very bright and powerful star. He appears almost never in Ms Littlejohn's social media posts, and even at his ordination, she doesn't mention his surname -- just "Robert". Must be Mr, er, Fr Littlejohn, right?

Not only that, but her social media profiles place her residence in San Jose, CA, where her NGO is headquartered, while Fr Littlejohn Kirk is now permanently in Balmer, on the other coast. No matter, Reggie is on first class glights to world capitals most of the time anyhow. Let's get real, these people live separate lives.

A comment that was sometimes perceptively made on sites after the Luke Reese affair was how little attention the ordinariate seems to pay to the marital circumstances of the men it ordains. Bp Lopes, Fr Kramer, and Fr Perkins are boldly going where no prudent Catholic cleric has ever gone before. I was briefly puzzled yesterday when I said Fr Kirk's mannerisms were remarkably like those of Mr Aldrich, my fifth grade music teacher, but Mr Aldrich didn't have a family, while Fr Kirk does.

Well, I guess he has a family of sorts.