Title
Proclamation honoring the life and legacy of Monsignor Charles Owen Rice on International Human Rights day December 10, 2005.
Body
WHEREAS, International Human Rights Day in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania will take place on December 10, 2005 and will honor the life and legacy of Pittsburgh Labor Priest, Monsignor Charles Owen Rice, who died on November 13, 2005, at the age of 96; and
WHEREAS, Msgr. Rice was born in New York on November 21, 1908, was raised in Ireland after his mother's death in 1913, returned to the United States in 1920 to live with his father in Mt. Washington, was a graduate of St. Mary of the Mount High School, Duquesne University and Saint Vincent seminary in Latrobe; and
WHEREAS, Msgr. Rice was ordained on June 17, 1934 and he retired as pastor of St. Anne, Castle Shannon, in June 1986, remaining as pastor emeritus; and
WHEREAS, Msgr. Rice was one of the most influential Pittsburghers of the 20th century for his more than 60 years of activism as a priest in the Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh, embracing the old Irish tradition of solidarity with the poor and the downtrodden; and
WHEREAS, the three central concerns of his activist life were labor rights, peace/anti-war, and anti-racism/racial justice; and
WHEREAS, he appeared on hundreds of picket lines, putting the church squarely on the side of union organizing efforts as a way to humanize capitalism and overcome the poverty he saw around him; and
WHEREAS, he was a powerful and consistent opponent of war, and in 1967 joined arm and arm with Martin Luther King, Jr. to the United Nations to protest the war in Vietnam; and
WHEREAS, he opposed anti-Semitism in the church and racism in society, and was a leading Pittsburgh figure in the civil rights movement with his name being inscribed among the heroes at Pittsburgh's Freedom Corner; and
NOW, THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, that Allegheny County Council hereby joins the community on International Human Rights Day in celebrating the life and legacy of Msgr. Charles Owen Rice. And furthermore, we join his devoted family, friends, and neighbors in paying tribute to this extraordinary man who displayed courage, compassion and generosity. His remarkable life serves as an inspiration to us all.