Higgins and his wife Krystyna, a professional piano accompanist, liturgical musician and freelance editor, have four adult children---Rebecca, Andrew, Sarah and Alexa.
In 2006 Higgins became President and Vice-Chancellor, as well as Professor of English and Religious Studies at St. Thomas University in Fredericton, New Brunswick.
[2] Four days later, on January 4, 2010, he commenced as a Visiting Senior Executive in Residence at Sacred Heart University (SHU).
In this role Higgins was responsible for leading initiatives that preserve, promote and integrate Catholic mission, vision and values throughout the University.
He directed such programs at the Spidlik Center for Ecumenical Understanding as well as the new and developing Institute for Vatican II Studies.
[3] As a radio documentarian for the CBC, he has prepared more than 60 one-hour scripts for Ideas, Celebration, and Testament, and has been a regular contributor to Morningside, This Morning, Sunday Edition, as well as to CTV's Canada AM and to TV Ontario's Studio 2 and Agenda.
[5] In November 2010, Higgins released Suffer the Children Unto Me: An Open Inquiry into the Clerical Sex Abuse Scandal, which was co-authored with Peter Kavanagh.
With the award the CPA stated that "The gift of this book is its clear, story-telling language and its richly nuanced entry into deeply troubling but necessary questions that involve media coverage, social mores, systemic and cultural factors, legal procedures, theological understandings, and institutional demands.
He has been listed in the Canadian Who's Who (1997), was named among TVO's 'Top Ten Lecturers of Ontario' (2005) and was a Senior Fellow at Massey College at the University of Toronto in 2012.
His CBC Ideas series "Genius Born of Anguish" won the New York Festivals' gold medal in 2013.
In 2020, Dr. Higgins received the Distinguished Alumnus Award from his alma mater St. Francis Xavier University, Antigonish, Nova Scotia.
Higgins also provided the ethical and humanistic perspective on the Discovery Channel's @discovery.ca twice per month, along with Dr. Pauline Mazumdar, Dr. Kee Dewdney, Rob Sawyer and Jay Ingram.