MANCHESTER (NH)
InDepthNH.org - New Hampshire Center for Public Interest Journalism [Barrington NH]
October 31, 2025
By Damien Fisher
UPDATED with comments from Michael Connolly, Libasci’s attorney, emailed Saturday.
The New York sex abuse lawsuit filed against Manchester Bishop Peter Libasci is getting dismissed weeks after the case was sent to mediation.
Lawyers for the defendants, Libasci and the Roman Catholic order the Sisters of St. Joseph, and the estate of the alleged victim, Charles O’Connor, filed a joint stipulation this month in Suffolk County Supreme Court in New York to dismiss the case with prejudice. The agreement to permanently dismiss the case comes weeks after Judge Leonard Steinman sent the lawsuit to mediation.
Michael Connolly, Libasci’s attorney, said in an email Saturday: “The civil lawsuit filed in New York State Supreme Court in Suffolk County against Bishop Peter Libasci of the Diocese of Manchester, New Hampshire, has been dismissed with prejudice.
“The allegations in the lawsuit were false. Bishop Libasci never abused anyone. The proof revealed as much during the course of the lawsuit, and the lawsuit has been discontinued with prejudice and without Bishop Libasci paying any money,” Connolly said.
Manchester’s Communications Director Tara Bishop sent InDepthNH a brief statement: “The Diocese of Manchester is not a party to the lawsuit filed against Bishop Libasci.”
O’Connor filed his lawsuit against Libasci in the summer of 2021, but the case was frozen by the bankruptcy proceedings involving the Roman Catholic Diocese of Rockville Centre on Long Island. The diocese filed bankruptcy after being hit with hundreds of child sex abuse lawsuits. Libasci served as the auxiliary bishop in Rockville Centre until he took over Manchester in 2011.
O’Connor died last summer before a federal bankruptcy court approved Rockville Centre’s $323 million settlement with the survivors. After O’Connor’s passing, his estate took up the claims against Libasci and the organizations connected to the alleged abuse.
The bankruptcy settlement resulted in three defendant organizations named in O’Connor’s lawsuit getting dismissed; the Saints Cyril and Methodius Roman Catholic Church, the Saints Cyril and Methodius, and there Our Lady of Guadalupe School. That left Libasci and the Sisters of St. Joseph to face O’Connor’s accusations.
The parish and parochial schools where Libasci was assigned were named as defendants, as O’Connor’s lawsuit states the parish and school officials should have known Libasci should not have been around children.
O’Connor claimed the abuse happened when he was an altar boy in the 1980s, while Libasci was a parish priest. The lawsuit alleges Libasci groped the 13-year-old boy. Libasci has maintained his innocence since news of the lawsuit first broke. Libasci’s legal team filed a motion in 2021 that denies all of the allegations.
Under church law, Libasci now faces an internal investigation into the abuse claim, known as a Vos Estis investigation. That investigation is being handled by Worcester, Massachusetts Bishop Robert McManus. Under the internal process, the Vos Estis investigation cannot start until the civil lawsuit is resolved. Worcester diocesan spokesman Ray DeLisle has not responded to multiple requests for comment.
Sarah Pearson, with the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, or SNAP, said O’Connor, lay Catholics, and the rest of the public deserve more than the Vos Estis investigation.
“We don’t put a lot of stock in the accuracy of those investigations that are conducted by the Vatican,” Pearson said.
McManus is a problematic figure for sex abuse survivors, Pearson said, and should not be in charge of investigating a fellow bishop.
“He has his own history of actions related to concealing abuse,” Pearson said,
In 2023, McManus released a report on sex abuse allegations made in the Worcester diocese going back to 1950 which did not include the names of any credibly accused priests. The report also claimed that just one abuse case occurred in Worcester after 1998.
Pearson wants to see an independent third party investigation take over and make its findings public.
“We just want to see the truth come out,” Pearson said.
Whatever the outcome of the Worcester investigation, Libasci’s term in Manchester is coming to a close. He turns 74 in November, and the Vatican imposes a retirement age for priests and bishops when they turn 75.
By DAMIEN FISHER, InDepthNH.org