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.
In 1937, Rice founded St. Joseph's House of Hospitality with two other Roman Catholic priests, Carl Hensler and George Barry O'Toole.
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.
[2] During seven decades of priesthood, Rice was pastor of Pittsburgh-area congregations including St. Joseph's in Natrona, Immaculate Conception in Washington, Holy Rosary in Homewood, and St. Anne's in Castle Shannon.
He opposed America's involvement in the Vietnam War in 1969, and supported workers in Pittsburgh when they lost their jobs and livelihood as the steel industry closed in the 1980s.