George G. Higgins and the Quest for Worker Justice: The Evolution of Catholic Social Thought in America (review)

In his 1937 encyclical, Divini Redemptoris, Pope Pius XI urged the clergy to "Go to the workingman, especially where he is poor." Few priests took that exhortation to heart more conscientiously or more effectively than the late Monsignor George Higgins.

George G. Higgins and the Quest for Worker Justice: The Evolution of Catholic Social Thought in America, by John J. O'Brien, is an intellectual biography of this Chicago priest who served on the staff of the National Catholic Welfare Conference (later the United States Catholic Conference) from 1944 to 1980, directing its Social Action Department from 1954 to 1967. The book is divided into five chapters and a conclusion, and nine appendices, a thorough index, and an up-to-date bibliography make it a valuable reference work also. The first two chapters provide a summary of Catholic social teachings in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and briefly outline Higgins' life before his appointment to the NCWC. The next chapters divide his life into three distinct periods: "Early Years in the Social Apostolate" (1945–1962), "Mature Years" (1963–1980), and "Later Years" (1981–1994), and these are based almost exclusively on Higgins' annual "Labor Day Statements" and the weekly "Yardstick" columns he contributed to Catholic newspapers for fifty-six years. They document well Higgins' work in applying traditional Catholic teachings to current and changing social and economic conditions. The "Conclusion" treats Higgins' final years after poor health and macular degeneration forced his retirement from more active ministry.

The major issues Higgins stressed in that first period, 1945–1962, included the God-given dignity of every person and the right of all workers, including farm workers, to join a union. He decried socialist and communist influence in labor unions and the collaboration of some union leaders with racketeers and members of organized crime. He urged unions to end all racial and religious discrimination and to guarantee women equal pay for equal work.

In the 1963–1980 period, he agreed with Michael Harrington's analysis in The Other America and urged union-industry-government co-operation in reducing poverty among the young, the elderly, the unemployed, women, and minorities. Having attended the Second Vatican Council as a peritus, he urged active participation of the Catholic laity in public life and encouraged wider Christian-Jewish dialogue and friendship. He strongly supported boycotts of J. P. Stevens and Campbell Soup because of their poor treatment of workers.

After 1980, Higgins opposed President Ronald Reagan's efforts to return to smaller government and to balance the budget by cutting welfare expenditures, and he criticized the president's firing of the air traffic controllers. Not blind to problems in his own Church, he urged Catholic institutions to facilitate the unionization of their teachers, nurses, and service personnel.

Monsignor Higgins stands solidly in the tradition of Cardinal Gibbons, Peter Dietz, John A. Ryan, and other outstanding priest-friends of labor, and Father O'Brien has produced a fine summary of his social justice views and his contributions to the American Church and to American public life.