WORCESTER (MA)
Worcester Telegram & Gazette [Worcester MA]
July 8, 2026
By Craig S. Semon
Bishop Robert J. McManus, who has served 22 years as the bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Worcester, has filed his retirement papers with Pope Leo XIV.
McManus, who turned 75 on Sunday, July 5, is required by canon law to offer his retirement to the pope when he reaches that age.
Now, it’s up to the pope to accept McManus’ retirement. Until then, McManus is still the bishop.
On May 14, 2004, McManus was installed as the fifth bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Worcester at St. Paul’s Cathedral. He was 52. Prior to his ordination in Worcester, McManus served as auxiliary bishop of Providence for five years.
Born in Providence, McManus was ordained on May 27, 1978, by Bishop Kenneth A. Angell at Our Lady of Mercy Parish in East Greenwich, Rhode Island.
As part of a web series, “Conversation with Bishop McManus,” on the Worcester Diocese website, Raymond L. Delisle, chancellor and communications director at the Diocese of Worcester, chatted with McManus on July 3 about his time as bishop.
McManus said it has been an extraordinary blessing to have so many new immigrant Catholics in the diocese.
“Recently, I was with the Ghanaian community one Sunday, and the following Sunday I was with the Kenyan community. And these people are on fire with the faith,” McManus said. “Everybody’s young, but there’s also the family, the grandparents, the parents and the children. And I think about the Vietnamese community. And [when] I go there to celebrations, the church is packed. Well, we certainly have seen a growth in the number of Hispanic parishes or parishes with Hispanic communities. Brazilian growth, other Portuguese immigrants … on and on.”
When McManus was installed as the bishop of the Diocese of Worcester, a dark cloud hovered over the Catholic Church. Bishop Daniel P. Reilly, whom McManus succeeded, removed eight priests from ministry in his last two years as bishop after allegations of sexual misconduct were made, with more than a dozen civil lawsuits pending before the courts. A report compiled for the bishops’ National Review Board in February 2003 shows more than 45 priests were accused of misconduct since 1950.
“I am painfully aware that more than a few Catholics feel alienated from the church today because of a betrayal of trust by some of its clergy or religious leaders,” McManus said during his installation ceremony.
While it was difficult to meet with priests and remove them from ministry for their actions, it was perhaps equally difficult going to parishes and announcing the news to parishioners, McManus said.
“I went to parishes, saw men weeping in the church,” he said. “So certainly, one of the greatest challenges of any bishop at this time, for these decades, has been to deal with this.”
In 2023, the diocese released a report that said it had identified 173 people who had made credible or substantiated allegations of abuse since the diocese’s founding in 1950 – just one of those cases coming after 1998. However, the report drew fire for not naming any of the accused priests.
McManus was educated at Our Lady of Providence Seminary, in Warwick, Rhode Island. He earned a master of divinity degree from Toronto School of Theology and doctoral degrees from the Pontifical Gregorian University, Rome.
The Worcester Diocese, which claims more than 250,000 members, was founded in 1950 and cut from the Springfield Diocese. Bishop John J. Wright was named first bishop. He was succeeded by the late Bishop Bernard J. Flanagan, who was succeeded by Bishop Timothy J. Harrington, followed by Reilly.
Reilly, although a generation older, grew up in the same general section of Providence as McManus.
Currently, McManus is living at 2 High Ridge Road, which has been the bishop’s residence since Wright bought it in 1950. After his retirement is approved by the pope, McManus plans to stay in Worcester.
“I’ve already gone to the Cathedral [of St. Paul] and worked with Father Hugo Cano, cathedral rector, to prepare a suite on the second floor,” McManus said in the interview with Delisle. “So I’ll live there when I retire. Bishop Reilly had a suite in the cathedral rectory for a while as well.”
As for his legacy, McManus said he hopes that he is remembered as “a true and loyal friend of Jesus that would stand up when the church that Jesus founded was being inappropriately criticized.”