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Presidential Medal of Freedom Recipient Msgr. George Higgins
ILO Boosters Moynihan and Higgins Awarded Highest Civilian Honor
Of the fifteen distinguished Americans who received the Medal of Freedom from President Clinton on August 9, several have championed labor rights and social justice during their illustrious careers. At the White House awards ceremony, the President said that the honorees had "helped us secure the blessings of liberty by acts of bravery, conscience and creativity."
Leading the list were Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan and Monsignor George Higgins, both of whom have been strong supporters of the ILO throughout their distinguished careers.
Moynihan was cited for his work "for social and economic justice throughout his extraordinary career." The New York Senator has served as a high-level advisor to four successive presidents, as ambassador to India and to the United Nations, and four terms in the U.S. Senate.
Associated Press
Reuters/William Philpott
ILO Boosters Awarded Medal of Freedom
Monsignor George Higgins and Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan, longtime supporters of the ILO, at the White House ceremony where they received the Medal of Freedom from President Clinton.
Referred to in the citation as an "academic, diplomat, public servant and champion of the underprivileged," Moynihan wrote his doctoral thesis on the ILO, and has noted its important role and potential on numerous occasions during his distinguished career.
The retiring Senator worked with Senator Orrin Hatch during the 1980s to achieve the U.S. Senate's favorable review for ratification of several ILO conventions.
Higgins was cited as a "champion [of] workers' rights, civil rights and religious tolerance."
Commenting on his award, Higgins said he was "pleased the way [the White House] described the honor--that it was because of my work in labor. If it brings attention to the labor cause, then it's a good thing."
As director of the Social Action Department of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops, chairman of the Public Review Board of the United Auto Workers, and chairman of the United Farmworkers' Martin Luther King, Jr., Fund, Higgins "played a vital role in strengthening the labor movement and protecting workers from exploitation."
Higgins was also cited for his "unceasing" work on behalf of working families worldwide, and his "unwavering commitment to fairness and equality."
Monsignor Higgins wrote and spoke tirelessly about workers' rights around the world, drawing on his extensive knowledge of the ILO and promoting its standards.
Not surprisingly, Senator Moynihan paid tribute in 1990 to the "labor priest" on the Senate floor in honor of the 50th anniversary of his priestly ordination.
Mildred McWilliams Jeffrey was also among those receiving the Medal of Freedom in August. The first director of the women's department of the United Auto Workers and an advisor to Presidents Kennedy and Carter, Jeffrey has spent over 60 years "helping working men and women break down the barriers to social and economic justice and thrive as members of America's labor force."
Cruz Reynoso was honored for devoting his life to "ending discrimination, fighting for immigrant rights and promoting equal opportunity." The first Hispanic American to serve on the California Supreme Court, Reynoso has also served as a vice chairperson of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights and as U.S.
Delegate to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights.
Other honorees included Marian Wright Edelman, founder of the Children's Defense Fund; the Reverend Jesse Jackson; and former Senator George McGovern, currently U.S. representative to the UN Food and Agricultural Organization.
The Medal of Freedom was developed by Senator Moynihan at the request of President Kennedy, who announced its establishment in 1963. It is the highest civilian award and is presented by the President to persons who have made especially meritorious contributions to the security or national interests of the United States, to world peace, or to cultural or other significant public or private endeavors.
Released: March 23, 2001
From: Michael O. Garvey
Monsignor George G. Higgins, the scholar, activist and foremost "labor priest" of the Catholic Church in America, has been awarded the University's Laetare Medal for the year 2001. Msgr. Higgins will receive the medal, the oldest and most prestigious honor given to American Catholics, during the University's 156th Commencement exercises on May 20 (Sun.).
"The long career of George Higgins shows how an ardent embrace of Catholic doctrine intensifies the hunger and thirst for justice," said Notre Dame's president, Rev. Edward A. Malloy, C.S.C. "We want to honor him for following Jesus, a carpenter's son, and heeding a vocation to serve his Lord in the workers of the world."
A Chicago native, Msgr. Higgins was born in 1916 and raised in a strong union family. His father, affectionately described by Msgr. Higgins as "a blue-collar intellectual," was a postal clerk and a voracious reader who took his son to hear G.K. Chesterton give a lecture in Chicago's Orchestra Hall and later took him to the 1932 Democratic National Convention to hear Franklin Delano Roosevelt accept the nomination for president.
Ordained a priest of the Chicago archdiocese in 1940, Msgr. Higgins did graduate study in economics and political science at The Catholic University of America, from which he received master's and doctoral degrees in 1942 and 1944, respectively. Appointed to the staff of the social action department of what was then called the National Catholic Welfare Conference (now the United States Catholic Conference), Msgr. Higgins became its director in 1954. He was appointed secretary for special concerns for the National Conference of Catholic Bishops in 1979, then retired from the conference in 1980 to teach theology at Catholic University. Throughout his career, Msgr. Higgins has been a forceful and occasionally controversial advocate of organized labor, often appearing on picket lines to rally and support striking workers. A participant and speaker at numerous international meetings, including the first congress of Solidarity in Poland, he also has published widely in scholarly and popular journals and written a weekly syndicated column in the Catholic press and a book entitled "Organized Labor and the Church: Reflections of a Labor Priest." Among his numerous awards from labor, academic and religious organizations is a 1979 honorary degree from Notre Dame, where a labor studies center was named in his honor in 1993. He received the Presidential Medal of Freedom last August.
The Laetare (pronounced Lay-tah-ray) Medal is so named because its recipient is announced each year in celebration of Laetare Sunday, the fourth Sunday in Lent on the Church calendar. "Laetare," the Latin word for "rejoice," is the first word in the entrance antiphon of the Mass that Sunday, which ritually anticipates the celebration of Easter. The medal bears the Latin inscription, "Magna est veritas et prevalebit"--"Truth is mighty, and it shall prevail."
Established at Notre Dame in 1883, the Laetare Medal was conceived as an American counterpart of the Golden Rose, a papal honor which antedates the 11th century. The medal has been awarded annually at Notre Dame to a Catholic "whose genius has ennobled the arts and sciences, illustrated the ideals of the Church and enriched the heritage of humanity."
Among the 122 previous recipients of the Laetare Medal (see accompanying list) are Civil War General William Rosecrans, operatic tenor John McCormack, Catholic Worker foundress Dorothy Day, novelist Walker Percy, Cardinal Joseph Bernardin, and death penalty abolitionist Sister Helen Prejean. Msgr. Higgins Dies at 86
Monsignor George G. Higgins, the scholar, activist and foremost "labor priest" of the Catholic Church in America, who was awarded the University's Laetare Medal in 2001, died on May 1, 2002.
"The long career of George Higgins shows how an ardent embrace of Catholic doctrine intensifies the hunger and thirst for justice," said Notre Dame's president, Rev. Edward A. Malloy, C.S.C., when the Laetare Medal was presented to Msgr. Higgins. "We want to honor him for following Jesus, a carpenter's son, and heeding a vocation to serve his Lord in the workers of the world."
Laetare Medalist Msgr. George Higgins delivers comments at Commencement 2001
Msgr. Higgins' Remarks (PDF Format)
Washington Post obituary
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Medal History
