James E. McManus

James Edward McManus (October 10, 1900 – July 6, 1976) was an American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. A member of the Redemptorist Order, he served as bishop of the Diocese of Ponce in Puerto Rico from 1947 to 1963 and as an auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of New York from 1963 to 1970.

Early life and education James McManus was born on October 10, 1900, in Brooklyn, New York, the eighth of nine children of William and Elizabeth (née O'Loughlin) McManus. He made his profession as a Redemptorist in Ilchester, Maryland, on August 2, 1922. After his ordination, the Redemptorists in 1929 assigned him to their mission in Caguas, Puerto Rico. They later sent him to Washington D.C. to attend the Catholic University of America, where he earned a Doctor of Canon Law degree in 1937.

McManus in 1948 founded the Pontifical Catholic University of Puerto Rico in Ponce. He also opposed Muñoz Marín's measure to cut the tax-exempt charitable donations by corporations from 15 percent of gross income to five percent of surplus. The PAC nominated Salvador Perea, a professor at the Pontifical Catholic University, as its candidate for governor, but was caught in a controversy over the validity of the signatures it collected to get on the ballot. and as episcopal vicar of Sullivan and Ulster Counties, a post that he held until his retirement in 1970. Between 1962 and 1965, McManus attended all four sessions of the Second Vatican Council in Rome.

McManus died at the Monmouth Medical Center in Long Branch, New Jersey, on July 3, 1976, at age 75.