An tAthair Seoirse G. Ó hUigín
Monsignor George G. Higgins
Monsignor
George G. Higgins was born in 1916 in Chicago and ordained for the
Archdiocese of Chicago in 1940. He studied at the Catholic University of America
in Washington, DC, obtaining a Master's degree in Economics in 1942 and a Ph.D.
in 1944. He served on the staff of the National Catholic Welfare Conference
(NCWC), now known as the National Conference of Catholic Bishops (NCCB)/United
States Catholic Conference(USCC), from 1944 to 1980 and was Director of their
Social Action Department, 1954-1967. He served with and was much influenced by
Msgr. John A. Ryan and Fr. Raymond McGowan, both important figures in the field
of Catholic social thought and labor relations. He was elevated to Papal
Chamberlain with the title of Monsignor in 1953 and was named a Domestic Prelate
in 1959. Upon the advent of the Vatican II Council, Higgins used his experience
and knowledge for the Preparatory Commission on the Lay Apostolate and as a
Consultant to the Council.
Always a champion of human rights and economic justice for all, especially
farm labor where he was the moving force in the Church's support for Cesar
Chavez and his union movement, Higgins served in several committees, including
the Bishops' Committee for Catholic-Jewish Relations, the Bishops' Committee on
Farm Labor, Chairman of the Public Review Board, United Auto Workers of America
(AFL-CIO), member of the American Arbitration Association, Executive Committee
member of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, member of the Board of the
Martin Luther King, Jr. Fund of the United Farm Workers, and Advisor to the
Chairman of the U.S. Delegation to the Belgrade Conference on Human Rights.
Higgins brought his expertise to the classroom, lecturing for both the School of
Social Science and the Department of Theology at Catholic University. In
addition to each of these activities, Higgins has written numerous book reviews
for Commonweal and America, and is the author, since 1945, of the syndicated
column "The Yardstick." On August 9, 2000, at a White House ceremony
at which President Bill Clinton, Msgr. Higgins was honored, among several other
notables including Simon Wiesenthal and John Kenneth Galbraith, with the
Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor. Msgr.
Higgins was selected because of his nearly 50 years of service to the cause of
justice for workers and his widespread recognition as the 'labor priest' and
point man for the American Catholic Church in this regard. He was honored with
the University of Notre Dame's Laetare Medal in 2001 and died on May Day, 2002,
after a long illness. He was widely mourned as a tireless champion of the labor
movement and a progressive voice in the Roman Catholic Church.