Manchester bishop accused of groping minor in the 1980s

The Most Reverend Peter A. Libasci (NH Council of Churches photo)

MANCHESTER - The Most Reverend Peter A. Libasci, the Bishop of Manchester, has been named as a defendant in a civil lawsuit accusing him of molesting a 13-year-old in the 1980s.

At the time, Libasci was the pastor of Saints Cyril and Methodius Church in Deer Park, N.Y., in the Diocese of Rockville Center. The church, its parochial school, and the Sisters of Saint Joseph are co-defendants in the suit.

Libasci, 69, has headed the Manchester Diocese since 2011.

In 2019, the Diocese of Manchester released the names of 73 diocesan and religious order priests who were accused of sexual abuse between 1950 and 2002.

In 2002, Manchester became the first Catholic diocese in the United States to settle a criminal case filed and prosecuted by a state attorney general over sexual abuse.

In 2014, the Chancellor of the Diocese of Manchester, Monsignor Edward Arsenault, was sentenced to four years in state prison for embezzling $185,000 in church funds to support his same sex lifestyle. He was defrocked by Pope Francis in 2017.

In 2002, another senior priest of the Diocese of Manchester, and a friend of Arsenault's, the Very Reverend Richard T. Lower, committed suicide after being accused of sexually assaulting a minor.

In cases where a diocesan bishop is accused, the church investigation would be carried out by the Metropolitan Archbishop of the province. For Manchester, that would be Cardinal Sean O'Malley of Boston.

Catholic Action League Executive Director C. J. Doyle made the following comment: "Obviously, the Diocese of Manchester is one of the more troubled Catholic jurisdictions in the United States.

"Orthodox Catholics have conflicted views of Bishop Libasci. He has been supportive of the right to life and has been generous in providing and sustaining the traditional Latin liturgy in his diocese. He has, also however, gone to draconian extremes, taking harshly punitive measures to suppress the traditionalist religious order, the Slaves of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, which had been seeking regularization from the diocese."