Remembering Robert F Kennedy + video

June 6th marks the 50th anniversary of the assassination of US Senator Robert F Kennedy at the age of 43 in Los Angeles, California. His death in 1968 came five years after the assassination of his brother, President John F Kennedy, and only two months after that of Martin Luther King Jr.

Pope Paul VI recalled Bobby Kennedy at the Angelus address just three days after his death. "We would do well to remember his actions for the poor, the dispossessed, the segregated, the need for urgent progress, and, in a word, social justice," the Pope said.

In a new book entitled 'American Values: Lessons I Learned from My Family' Robert Kennedy Jr tells his father's story and reflects on his legacy that has shaped his own enduring values.

Robert F Kennedy, Jr, the third of eleven children born to Bobby Kennedy and Ethel Skakel Kennedy, describes what it was like to grow up in his extraordinary home as part of America's unofficial royal family. He takes us deep into his past, into the boisterous RFK household of his childhood - and speaks passionately of the role models who shaped him, including his father and his Uncle Jack.

With emotion and striking detail, Robert recalls both the private joys and very public pain of his childhood - the overwhelming devastation of Jack Kennedy's assassination, then, just five years later, his own father's tragic death when Robert was just fourteen. After years of struggling, Robert eventually found his calling as a fierce and passionate environmental activist. Like the Kennedys who came before him, he is a staunch Democrat and outspoken defender of justice and human rights.

In an interview on Vatican Radio with Alessandro Gisotti, when asked about the influence his father's Catholic faith had on his political commitment, Robert Kennedy Jr said: "My father's faith was the faith of Dorothy Day, of the Gospels. It was the part of Catholicism that Pope John XXIII believed in and that St Francis of Assisi believed in - that the Church should be an instrument of justice and kindness around the world."

He said: "My father's middle name was Francis. And Francis was the patron saint of our house when we were growing up. So, I think that Pope Francis' view of the role of the Church is identical to my father's view of what both government and the Church ought to be doing in the broader society. That is, engaging in justice and kindness and goodness in the world, and not war."

Watch: Robert F Kennedy's speech after assassination of Martin Luther King Jr - www.youtube.com/watch?v=BCrx_u3825g

American Values: Lessons I Learned from My Family, is published by Harper Collins.