Monsignor Charles Owen Rice and the FBI

Abstract

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The occasion for this short note is the Federal Bureau of Investigation's (FBI) release of Monsignor Charles Owen Rice's Headquarters (HQ) and Pittsburgh Field Office (FO) files. Rice (1908–2005), as many readers of this journal know, was an extraordinarily controversial figure throughout much of his life. Ordained a Roman Catholic priest in 1934, he was militantly prolabor and anticommunist from the late 1930s through 1950. After heading up parishes in Natrona and Washington outside Pittsburgh, Rice returned to the city in 1966, where he visibly and actively participated in the antiwar and civil rights movements. It should not surprise us, then, that historians have disagreed considerably about how to assess his career. One of the central issues at stake is his connection to the FBI during his anticommunist period, especially during the 1940s.