| 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 |
| Religion | Roman Catholic |
| Relatives | Patrick Rice |
Monsignor Charles Owen Rice (November 21, 1908 – November 13, 2005)[1] 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 his paternal grandmother, in a large extended family home along the seafront in Bellurgan, County Louth. 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. His cousin, also called Patrick Rice (June, 1918 – June 8, 2010), was an ordained priest in Dublin and similarly elevated to the Canonry.
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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, and as a leader of the Catholic Radical Alliance, was involved in strikes against the H.J. Heinz Company.[2] 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.[3]
For many years, he was a columnist for the Pittsburgh Catholic. He marched with Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. in the Spring Mobilization for Peace in New York in 1967. He opposed America's involvement in the Vietnam War in 1969, and supported workers in Pittsburgh as they lost their jobs and livelihood when the steel industry closed in the 1980s.
He continued his involvement in Catholic activism throughout the eras of Civil Rights, the women's movement, and the anti-war movements.