Influential liturgist dead at 82.

Boston -- Unquestionably the most influential American Catholic priest in the latter half of the 20th century, Msgr. Frederick McManus died in November 2005, in Massachusetts.

Journalist Paul Likoudis of the Catholic weekly, The Wanderer, states he was dubbed the "Mephistopheles" of the American Church for the role he played at the National Conference of Catholic Bishops. Likoudis says he distorted the implementation of the documents of Vatican II and postconciliar instructions. He encouraged the separation of Catholic colleges and universities from the Church's overall mission and he acted as "gatekeeper" to the U.S. episcopacy, selecting and vetting priests for episcopal office by means of his canon law program.

Ordained in 1947, he went on to teach at the Catholic University of America (CUA) where he was dean of canon law from 1967 to 1973. From 1974 to 1983, he was provost and dean of graduate studies; and, from 1983 to 1985, academic vice president at CUA.

However, it was in his roles first as president of the Liturgical Conference in the United States from 1959 to 1962 and in 1964-1965, then as a member of Vatican II's Liturgy Commission, and then for ten years as director of the secretariat, NCCB Committee on Liturgy (19651975), that McManus exercised his control. He did more than any other person to remove Latin from the Roman Rite of the Mass, and he opened the way to endless liturgical innovation in substance and style.

As Msgr. Richard Schuler, pastor emeritus of the Church of St. Agnes in St. Paul, MN, recalled in a 1990 study, A Chronicle of Reform, McManus, along with Fr. Rembert Weakland, OSB, and Fr. Godfrey Diekmann, OSB, hijacked a thriving liturgical movement, decapitated it by expelling experts in sacred music, especially Gregorian chant, and imposed their own theories to de-Romanize and de-sacralize the Mass.

"On the American scene," wrote Msgr. Schuler, "the American Liturgical Conference was the chief opponent of [sacred music, especially Gregorian chant].

"It worked through groups within the Church Music Association of America led by Archabbot Rembert Weakland, and through persons associated with the Bishops' Committees on the Liturgy which were directed by Fr. Frederick McManus.

"The editor of [the monthly magazine] Worship, Fr. Godfrey Diekmann, also played a leading role along with other journalists.... In time, the Music Advisory Board, set up under the Bishops' Committee on the Liturgy, became a tool for these groups in their efforts to oppose the decrees of the Council on sacred music.

"The final clash would occur over the publication of the 1967 instruction, Musicam sacram, issued jointly by the Consilium for the Implementation of the Constitution on the Liturgy and the Sacred Congregation of Rites. Msgr. Iginio Angles said of the preparation of the instruction: "As you know we had to fight many a battle over this instruction, as the liturgists did not want to hear about the true value of good church music in the liturgy. They tried to destroy everything that belonged to the old Roman rite...."

"[I]n the United States the liturgical revolution against the Roman rite and its treasury of sacred music was led by Archabbot Weakland as chairman of the Music Advisory Board of the Bishops' Committee on the Liturgy....

"Typical and perhaps most interesting of the innovations engineered through the Music Advisory Board by Fr. McManus, Fr. Diekmann, and Fr. Weakland was the 'hootenanny Mass.' The scenario began in April 1965, when Fr. Diekmann delivered an address entitled 'Liturgical Renewal and the Student Mass' at the convention of the National Catholic Education Association in New York. In his speech, he called for the use of the 'hootenanny Mass' as a means of worship for high school students.

"This was the kickoff of a determined campaign on the part of the Liturgical Conference to establish the use of profane music in the liturgy celebrated in the United States....

"Encouraged by liturgists who lacked musical learning, many amateurs began to sing, play, and compose under the false idea that they were fulfilling the commands of the Council for active participation. They were, in fact, breaking the rules of the highest authority in the Church. Texts to be sung in church are to be taken from the Holy Scriptures or liturgical sources, but all kinds of secular ballads and songs have become commonplace" (The Wanderer, Dec. 8, 2005).