Charles Owen Rice

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Charles Owen Rice
Born	November 21,1908 Brooklyn, N.Y.
Died	November 13, 2005 (aged 96) McCandless, Pennsylvania
Education	Duquesne University, Saint Vincent Seminary
Occupation	Roman Catholic priest, labor organizer
Known for	participation in the Heinz Pickle Strike and other social justice causes
Religious beliefs	Roman Catholic
Relatives	Patrick Rice

Monsignor Charles Owen Rice (November 21, 1908 – November 13, 2005) was a Roman Catholic priest and an American labor activist.

He was born in Brooklyn, New York, USA to Irish immigrants. His mother died when he was four, and he and his brother were sent to Ireland to be raised by a grandmother. Seven years later he returned to the United States. In 1934, after studies at Duquesne University and Saint Vincent Seminary, he was ordained into the priesthood in the Diocese of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where he served for seven decades. His brother Patrick was also an ordained priest in Pittsburgh and a canon lawyer.

During the Great Depression, Rice began his activism in social causes and especially in the American labor movement. Rice was mentored by Pittsburgh's original labor priest Father James Cox. He met Dorothy Day and was a friend of Philip Murray, founder of the Steel Workers Organizing Committee and president of the Congress of Industrial Organizations. He continued his involvement in Catholic activism throughout the eras of Civil Rights, Vietnam War, the women's movement, and the anti-war movements of recent years.

[edit] References

• Nate Guidry and Jon Schmitz (2005). "Labor Priest" Msgr. Rice Dies at 96. Retrieved November 14, 2005.
• Heineman, Kenneth J. (1999). A Catholic New Deal: Religion and Reform in Depression Pittsburgh. University Park: The Pennsylvania State University Press. ISBN 0-271-01895-X. 
• Rice, Charles Owen (1996). Fighter With a Heart: Writings of Charles Owen Rice, Pittsburgh Labor Priest. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press. ISBN 0-8229-5619-5. 

Persondata
NAME	Rice, Charles Owen
ALTERNATIVE NAMES
SHORT DESCRIPTION	Labor priest
DATE OF BIRTH	1908
PLACE OF BIRTH	Brooklyn, New York
DATE OF DEATH	November 13, 2005
PLACE OF DEATH	McCandless, Pennsylvania