Frederick Richard McManus (February 8, 1923 – November 27, 2005) was an

American Catholic The Catholic Church in the United States is part of the worldwide Catholic Church in communion with the pope, who as of 2025 is Chicago, Illinois-born Leo XIV. With 23 percent of the United States' population , the Catholic Church is the cou ...

priest and academic who served as a

peritus ''Peritus'' (Latin for "expert"; plural ''periti'') is the title given to Roman Catholic theologians attending an ecumenical council to give advice. At the Second Vatican Council (also known as 'Vatican II'), some ''periti'' accompanied indivi ...

on the liturgy at the

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. He presided at the first English

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in the United States in 1964 in

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. McManus was also a leader in opening up Catholic dialogue with the

Eastern Orthodox Church The Eastern Orthodox Church, officially the Orthodox Catholic Church, and also called the Greek Orthodox Church or simply the Orthodox Church, is List of Christian denominations by number of members, one of the three major doctrinal and ...

and served as dean of

The Catholic University of America The Catholic University of America (CUA) is a private Catholic research university in Washington, D.C., United States. It is one of two pontifical universities of the Catholic Church in the United States – the only one that is not primarily ...

's School of Canon Law. He published eleven books on the liturgy as well as hundreds of popular articles, spending 40 years as editor of '' The Jurist: Studies in Church Law and Ministry''.

Biography

Early life

Born to Frederick and Mary (née Twomey) McManus, he had a younger brother Charles McManus. He attended

Boston College High School Boston College High School (also known as BC High) is an all-male, Society of Jesus, Jesuit, Catholic Church, Catholic College-preparatory school, college-preparatory day school in the Columbia Point, Boston, Columbia Point neighborhood of Dorche ...

followed by the

College of the Holy Cross The College of the Holy Cross is a private Jesuit liberal arts college in Worcester, Massachusetts, United States. It was founded by educators Benedict Joseph Fenwick and Thomas F. Mulledy in 1843 under the auspices of the Society of Jesus. ...

from 1940–42. He went on to St. John's Seminary in

Brighton Brighton ( ) is a seaside resort in the city status in the United Kingdom, city of Brighton and Hove, East Sussex, England, south of London. Archaeological evidence of settlement in the area dates back to the Bronze Age Britain, Bronze Age, R ...

and received a Bachelor of Arts in 1947. He was ordained a priest on May 1, 1947.

Education and career

He received the following degrees: JCB (1952), JCL (1953) and JCD (1954), all from

(CUA), where he served as Dean of the School of Canon Law 1967-1973, Vice Provost and Dean of Graduate Studies 1974-1983, and Academic Vice President, retiring in 1993 while continuing to teach until 1997 as Professor Emeritus.

Second Vatican Council

Monsignor McManus attended the Second Vatican Council as a peritus on the liturgy and member of the council's Liturgy Commission. He was the primary drafter of sections of the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy. McManus served two terms as president of the Liturgical Conference. He was also made director of the Committee on the Liturgical Apostolate in 1965. As then president of the Liturgical Conference at its 25th gathering, with authorization from Cardinal Joseph E. Ritter, Father McManus presided over the first public Mass in English in the Kiel Auditorium in St. Louis, MO on August 24, 1964.

Associations and ecumenism

Msgr. McManus served as president of the Liturgical Conference from 1959–62 and 1964-65. He was key in establishing the Federation of Diocesan Commissions (FDLC) in 1968. He was a member of the International Commission on English in the Liturgy (ICEL) from its inception in 1963 throughout decades of translation. He helped promote dialogue between the Roman Catholic and Orthodox Churches. He consulted for the Secretariat for Promoting Christian Unity, was a member of the Catholic-Orthodox Bilateral Commission and served on the International Joint Commission for Catholic-Orthodox Theological Dialogue.

Death

McManus died in

Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

, Massachusetts on November 27, 2005, at age 82.

References

External links

* https://web.archive.org/web/20110719153032/http://www.naal-liturgy.org/memorials/fmcmanus.html * http://dsjliturgy.blogspot.com/2005/12/keep-in-mind-msgr-frederick-r-mcmanus.html * https://web.archive.org/web/20101215094244/http://fdlc.org/Awards_McManusAbout.htm {{DEFAULTSORT:Mcmanus, Frederick R. 1923 births 2005 deaths People from Lynn, Massachusetts College of the Holy Cross alumni Boston College High School alumni Catholic University of America School of Canon Law alumni 20th-century American Roman Catholic priests Catholic University of America School of Canon Law faculty Liturgists American Roman Catholic writers Catholics from Massachusetts 21st-century American Roman Catholic priests