Without fear or favor: George Higgins on the record. - book reviews

Without Fear of Favor: George Higgins On the Record

"I will be happy to go . . . on a moment's notice, if you think my presence there would serve a useful purpose.'

That was Msgr. George Higgins's response to a recent request that he travel to a city where a dramatic strike of 17,000 union workers had been marred by widespread assaults upon peaceful pickets by private security guards and local police.

"A moment's notice' is the lead-tme characteristically required for Msgr. Higgins to enter a fray where human values are at stake.

His interventions on behalf of those in need of help or in defense of principles needing a champion have been not only immediate in response, but also "without fear or favor,' approprately, the title of Gerald M. Costello's study of the man former Supreme Court Justice Arthur Goldberg describes as "a confidant of labor leaders and working people, of presidents and Cabinet officers, of cardinals and priests, of clerical colleagues of other faiths, of lay persons, Catholic and non-Catholic, and of intellectuals.'

Although the book has been classified as "biography,' Msgr. Higgins has stated the book is not that. The author describes his work as a "journalist's study' of the role Msgr. Higgins has played in the Catholic Church in the United States and in the lives of thousands of people his ministry has touched.

The insights Costello brings to his study are gleaned from the best possible source, Msgr. Higgin's own words presented for more than 35 years in his syndicated weekly column, "The Yardstick,' and in articles, lectures, correspondence and interviews.

As a young priest finishing doctoral studies at Catholic University in early 1944, Father Higgins was asked to spend the summer months in a temporary position with the National Catholic Welfare Conference, predecessor organization of the current U.S. Catholic Conference and the National Conference of Catholic Bishops.

That temporary appointment lasted more than 36 years. In the intervening period between his casual initiation and his retirement, George Higgins became one of the most influential members of the Catholic Church in the United States and one of the most respected supporters and interpreters of collective bargaining as an element of modern society.

When Msgr. Higgins as a church representative insists that in today's complex world there can be no truly free society without a free trade union movement, he is in good company. The same conviction has been asserted in papal encyclicals dating back to Pope Leo XIII's "Rerum Novarum' in 1891 and even earlier to the writing of German Bishop Von Kettler. The principle has been repeated and expanded upon by every pontiff and in the last fifty years, most recently by Pope John Paul II in his major document on "Human Work.'

The principles of social reform, social justice and social reconstruction enunciated in those papal documents --and expressed in different form and language in national legislation and trade union programs--have been expounded through the years by those associated with the official conferences of the U.S. Catolic Church and in official statements from national Protestant and Jewish organizations.

Some of the Catholic representatives like Msgr. John A. Ryan, Fr. Raymond McGowan and Bishop Francis J. Haas, have been singled out by Msgr. Higgins for special and repeated recognition as having made signficant contributions to the process of translating into common usage the general values of generic statements. To that list, current reviewers of the great contributers to social justice invariably add the name of Msgr. Higgins.

The unique role the Monsignor has played in the institutional life of organized labor and organized religion is to explain by word and example the intertwining of their roots, their value systems and their necessity. His intelectual capacity, his philosophical depth, his knowledge of history in the fields of his broad-ranging interests and his communication skills may be matched by other in their particular areas of specialization. But to those attributes, Msgr. Higgins adds the unique ability to plunge into raging controversy while being accepted by the contending antagonists as an advocate only of truth and justice.

Because justice more often than not is on the side of the oppressed, the disadvantaged, the handicapped, the poor and those who work, and because unions so often are the advocates of those struggling groups, here and abroad, Msgr. Higgins frequently is found allied with the labor movement.

He also can be included among those who agree with AFL-CIO President Lane Kirkland that higher standards of conduct and performance should be consiered the norm for unions and their leaders. The straight-shooting Monsignor does not hesitate to note departures from that norm.

Whether it is the plight of coal miners in Harlan County, Ky., farm workers in California, hotel workers in Las Vegas, or Polish workers who are members of Solidarnosc that calls for his personal involvement, Msgr. Higgins has shown he is ready "on a moment's notice.'