Throughout his entire life, this "labor priest," as we fondly and admiringly referred to him, fought for and lifted the lives of working men and women - hundreds of thousands of them. Wherever working people were joining together to build a better life, George Higgins was there. He prayed with striking miners in Wyoming, celebrated an organizing victory with meat cutters in Texas, stood with hospital workers and mediated between farm workers and grape growers in California, and testified on Catholic social teaching in a case before the Education Labor Relations Board in Illinois.
More than any other American in the 20th century, Msgr. Higgins argued that Christian beliefs must prominently include the notion that work must be valued and workers honored. His preaching on Catholic social teaching educated generations of leaders within his church and helped them apply the justice Gospel in their own areas.
And for more than 60 years, Msgr. Higgins championed the right of working men and women to join freely in unions to improve their lives, giving unremitting energy and effort and vision and wisdom to America's unions, in good as well as challenging years.
One venue for his inspiration was AFL-CIO conventions, at which he delivered invocations for more than 20 years. In 1999, in the opening invocation at the community convocation preceding our Los Angeles convention, he spoke of his belief in organizing as a path to justice:
"We will not have a decent society in the United States until a much larger percentage of the workers are organized into unions," he said.
Msgr. Higgins was a certain force in bringing labor and the church closer together, and his efforts over many years laid the ground work for the strong and growing partnership between the union movement and the National Interfaith Committee for Worker Justice.
And while his preaching of the justice Gospel won him well-deserved praise, his pastoral attention to working families was also remarkable: many who suffered disappointment or disillusion were uplifted by his resolute faith in the reign of God and hopefulness in God's ultimate triumph over injustice. When I visited with him last Saturday I was struck by the gifts Msgr. Higgins had given to so many of us who were privileged to know him.
All workers - whether they are farm workers, health care workers, poultry workers, steel workers, immigrants, people of color, whites, Catholic Jewish, Muslim or Protestant - owe a debt of gratitude to Msgr. Higgins.
So while we are saddened by his passing, we are—even more so—ever mindful of and deeply grateful for the conscience, courage, intellect and love that Msgr. George Higgins committed to America's workers and America's unions.
For information: Lane Windham 202/637-5018
