home| join FDLC| e-mail

 Msgr. Frederick R. McManus

During the 1995 National Meeting a new FDLC award for “significant contributions in the field of pastoral liturgy” was presented for the first time. The FDLC Board of Directors named the award after Monsignor Frederick R. McManus, who was also the award’s first recipient. Liturgical pioneer, Ms Adé Bethune, presented the award to Monsignor McManus.

Monsignor Frederick R. McManus, a presbyter of the Archdiocese of Boston, has marked our liturgical pilgrim’s progress by the extraordinary service he has rendered the Church for the past many decades. His curriculum vitae is a history of the liturgical reform in the United States. Active in the National Liturgical Weeks and consultant to the pre-Conciliar Bishops’ Commission on the Liturgical Apostolate, he was there before the Council (consultant to the Pontifical Preparatory Commission on the Sacred Liturgy), during the Council (as a peritus) and after the Council (serving for six years on the Concilium). A member of the ICEL advisory Committee from its inception, he was the first Executive Director of the BCL, where he served for ten years. Having run out of new positions for him to found, the BCL then appointed him a permanent staff consultant. Beyond these endeavors in liturgical renewal and his long time association with Catholic University, he has also been a pioneer in the ecumenical adventures of ICET and ELLC and is the presently a facilitator in the development of the Common Lectionary.

Fred was mid-wife to the birth of the Federation some 26 years ago, so it is appropriate that in our adolescence, we express our affection for him today.