By DAMIEN FISHER, InDepthNH.org
After a two-year delay, the lawsuit alleging Diocese of Manchester Bishop Peter Libasci sexually abused an altar boy in the 1980s is finally moving toward a trial.
The Libasci lawsuit, filed in the summer of 2021, is among more than 200 similar lawsuits against priests and others in the Catholic diocese of Rockville Centre that had been stayed pending the outcome of the diocese’s federal bankruptcy proceedings. The lawsuits, filed in New York State courts, were frozen until the bankruptcy case was final.
But, as the bankruptcy case stretched into its third year, federal judges began ordering individual lawsuits released from the stay. More than 130 of these abuse lawsuits are now newly active.
Federal Judge Ann Donnelly remanded the lawsuit against Libasci back to state court in September along with seven other lawsuits.
Donnelly wrote in her ruling these lawsuits have already been delayed by the bankruptcy case, and “any further obstruction of state court actions will only make it more difficult for the plaintiffs to prove their claims.”
The lawsuit against Libasci is now assigned to Judge Leonard Steinman in the Nassau County Supreme Court, where a preliminary hearing was heard this week.
Manchester’s media representative did not respond to a request for comment.
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 and demands that the case be dismissed. Libasci is also seeking to recover attorney fees from his accuser.
The accuser’s complaint claims that he was groped by Libasci at around the age of 13, when Libasci was a parish priest in the Rockville Centre diocese. The parish and parochial school where Libasci was assigned are also named as defendants. The lawsuit claims that church officials should have known Libasci should not have been around children.
Libasci served as the auxiliary bishop in Rockville Centre starting in 2017. He’s been the bishop in Manchester for the last 10 years, taking over for scandal-plagued Bishop John McCormack who was found to have helped former Boston Archbishop Bernard Cardinal Law cover up decades of sexual abuse.
Rockville Centre is attempting to settle with several hundred abuse victims through the bankruptcy court, and the diocese has reportedly spent more than $100 million on this effort. So far, all of the settlement offers have failed.
The most recent settlement offer of $200 million would cap victim payouts to $100,000 each. That $200 million would be paid by Rockville Centre’s diocese as well as parochial schools and other ministries. Victims would be able to seek under the agreement from insurance companies that covered the diocese.
Rockville Centre spokesman, Sean Dolan, did not respond to requests for comment.
Rockville Centre’s proposal is complicated by the fact one of Rockville Centre’s insurers, Arrowhead Indemnity Co., was liquidated this summer due to insolvency. The company’s $17 million in assets was dwarfed by the potential claims coming forward. Arrowhead insured many Catholic dioceses now trying to settle with child sex abuse victims.
The status of a separate Church investigation into the allegation against Libasci is still in limbo.
In 2019, Pope Francis set new rules for sex abuse investigations involving bishops under his Vos estis lux mundi plan. Under those new rules, when bishops are accused of abuse a Church investigation must be conducted within 90 days of the accusation being made.
InDepth has learned that the Vos estis investigation into Libasci hasn’t even started. It will not begin until the civil lawsuit is complete.
Ray Delisle, spokesman for Worcester Bishop Joseph McManus, told InDepthNH.org Vos estis rules require holding off investigations when there are pending actions in secular court.
“When the Report Bishop Abuse system was announced, it also noted that when a civil or criminal action is involved, the Vatican would not authorize the investigation to begin or may suspend an investigation until the civil or criminal action is concluded,” Delisle said.
Under Vos estis, the investigation must be conducted by the Metropolitan of the accused bishop. In this case, that would be Sean Cardinal O’Malley, the archbishop of Boston. However, O’Malley’s office delegated the Libasci investigation to McManus.