Bishop McManus will serve as acting chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee for Religious Liberty, it was announced Tuesday.
Archbishop Joseph E. Kurtz, D.D., of Louisville, Kentucky, resigned as chairman of the committee, after his diagnosis with urothelial carcinoma.
Cardinal Daniel N. DiNardo of Galveston-Houston, president of the USCCB, appointed Bishop McManus to the post July 23, to serve until the November 2019 General Assembly.
In a press release from the USCCB, Cardinal DiNardo stated: “We are praying for Archbishop Kurtz, especially as he undergoes an intense treatment plan at Duke Cancer Institute over these next several weeks and months. I very much appreciate Bishop McManus’s agreeing to step into this chairmanship role and lead the important work of the Committee for Religious Liberty.”
Bishop McManus said, "Just today (July 23) I have been in contact with Archbishop Kurtz, expressing to him my prayers and best wishes for the successful treatment of his recently diagnosed cancer. Archbishop Kurtz has chaired this important committee very well for the last two years. I have asked him to keep me in his good prayers as I seek to serve the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops as the interim chairman of the committee on religious freedom."
Allison LeDoux, director of the Worcester diocesan Respect Life and Marriage and Family Life offices, said the religious freedom issues, “are something Bishop McManus feels very strongly about and has a lot of expertise in.”
Mrs. LeDoux, who has coordinated diocesan events for the Fortnite for Freedom and the more recent Religious Freedom Week, said Bishop McManus has been a strong promoter of the observance of these weeks.
“Because he is such an exemplary moral theologian, he is the perfect one to lead this committee,” Mrs. LeDoux said.
Bishop McManus can articulate what the issues are and presents the Church’s teachings clearly, she noted. “He will bring that to the committee and to the Church in the United States,” Mrs. LeDoux said.
Bishop McManus served as chairman of the Subcommittee on Health Care Issues from 2012 to 2018 and served as chairman of the Committee on Catholic Education from 2005 to 2008. He has served as a member of the Committee on Doctrine since 2001 and has previously served as a member of the Committee on Pro-Life Activities and the Committee on Budget and Finance.
He holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in philosophy from The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., and he holds a Master of Divinity degree from the Toronto School of Theology. He has also earned licentiate and doctoral degrees in sacred theology from The Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome.