Roman Catholic Diocese of Manchester

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Roman Catholic Diocese of Manchester" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (February 2007) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)

Diocese of Manchester Diocensis Manchesteriensis
Catholic
Coordinates		42°59′52″N 71°27′17″W / 42.99773010°N 71.45476170°W / 42.99773010; -71.45476170
Statistics
Area	9,305 sq mi (24,100 km2)
Population - Total - Catholics	(as of 2019) 1,356,458 330,160 (24.3%)
Information
Denomination	Catholic
Sui iuris church	Latin Church
Rite	Roman Rite
Established	April 15, 1884 (1884-04-15)
Cathedral	Cathedral of Saint Joseph
Patron saints	Saint Joseph Saint Patrick[1]
Current leadership
Pope	Francis
Bishop	Peter Anthony Libasci
Metropolitan Archbishop	Seán Patrick O'Malley
Bishops emeritus	Francis Joseph Christian Auxiliary Bishop Emeritus (1996-2018)
Map
Website
www.catholicnh.org

The Diocese of Manchester (

.

The mother church of the Diocese of Manchester is the Cathedral of St. Joseph in Manchester.^[3] Its patron saints are St. Joseph and St. Patrick.

Statistics

As of 2018, the diocese served 322,258 Catholics (24.3% of 1,326,813 total population) on 24,097 km² in 89 parishes with 185 priests (121 diocesan, 38 religious, 26 extern), 73 deacons, 314 lay religious (15 brothers, 299 sisters) and 14 seminarians.^[3]

History

1680 to 1783

The first Catholics in the New Hampshire area were probably members of the Sokwaki and Pennacook tribes who had been converted by missionaries from the French colony of New France. After New Hampshire became a British royal colony in 1680, it enacted discriminatory laws against Catholics, including the requirement of a Protestant oath for anyone seeking public office.^[4]

During King William's War in the late 1600s, Native American allies of the French captured several women from the British settlements in the Province of New Hampshire. These women later converted to Catholicism; one of them traveled to New France to enter an Ursuline convent.^[5] In 1694, during a French raid on British settlements near Durham, the first Catholic Masses in New Hampshire were celebrated by two Jesuit priests accompanying the expedition.^[4] However, there would be no organized Catholic communities in New Hampshire until the 19th century.

1783 to 1884

After the American Revolution ended in 1783, Pope Pius VI erected in 1784 the Prefecture Apostolic of the United States, encompassing the entire territory of the new nation. The State of New Hampshire was admitted to the union in 1788. Pius VI created the Diocese of Baltimore, the first diocese in the United States, to replace the prefecture apostolic in 1789.^[6][7]

Pope Pius VII erected the Diocese of Boston on April 8, 1808, including New Hampshire in its jurisdiction.^[8] The first Catholic church in New Hampshire, St. Mary's, was built in 1823 in Claremont by a father and son, both Anglican priests, who had converted to Catholicism. The first parish in New Hampshire was St. Aloyisius in Dover, erected in 1830. It was estimated in 1835 that there were 387 Catholics, two churches, and two priests in the state.

With the industrialization of New Hampshire in the 19th century, many Catholic Irish and French Canadian immigrants started settling there. In 1853, Pope Pius IX erected the Diocese of Portland in Maine, including New Hampshire in its territory.^[5] In 1858, the first Catholic grammar school in the state opened in Manchester.^[4]

1884 to 1944

After Bradley's death in late 1903, Pope Pius X appointed John Delany as the second bishop of Manchester. However, after only 21 months in office, Delany died in 1906. His replacement as bishop was George Guertin, appointed by Pius X in 1907. Between 1907 and 1926, Guertin added sixteen new parishes in the diocese; five were French-speaking and two were Polish-speaking. During World War I, Guertin had the diocese purchase a $15,000 war bond; using his personal funds, he purchased $5 war saving stamps for each student in the cathedral parish school.^[11] In September 1930, Guertin decreed that Catholic parents in the diocese must send their children to Catholic schools or be denied absolution.^[12]

After Guertin died in 1931, Pope Pius XI appointed Auxiliary Bishop John Peterson from the Archdiocese of Boston as the fourth bishop of Manchester. A major area of tension in the diocese came from ethnic strife between the Irish and French-Canadian communities. A French speaker, Peterson told a Manchester dinner audience in 1932 that he condemned all religious and ethnic hatred and would not support any cause based in hatred. He was able to gain the trust of French Canadian Catholics in the diocese with his words and actions.^[13] Rivier College for girls was founded by the Sisters of the Presentation of Mary in Nashua in 1933. In 1934, in the midst of the Great Depression, Peterson enacted austerity spending measures for the diocese.^[14][13]

1944 to 1990

With the 1944 death of Peterson, Pope Pius XII appointed Bishop

Primeau retired as bishop in 1974.

In 1983, four nuns with the Sisters of Mercy settled a lawsuit against Gendron and the diocese after being fired from their teaching jobs in 1982 at Sacred Heart School in Hampton. The nuns agreed to apply for new jobs at another diocesan school and the diocese promised to help them in their applications. It was the first lawsuit by nuns against their bishop in US history.^[18]

In 1989, Pope John Paul II appointed Auxiliary bishop Leo Edward O'Neil of the Archdiocese of Springfield as coadjutor bishop in Manchester to assist Gendron.

1990 to present

When Gedron retired in 1990, O'Neil automatically succeeded him as bishop of Manchester. During his tenure, O'Neil worked to foster a common vision among New Hampshire Catholics with a program entitled "Renewing the Covenant." He died in 1997.^[19]

John Paul II appointed Auxiliary Bishop John McCormack of the Archdiocese of Boston as O'Neil's replacement in 1998. In April 2011, McCormack criticized proposed cuts in the New Hampshire state budget that would impact the poor. In response, Republican State Representative D.J. Bettencourt called McCormack a "pedophile pimp" with no moral authority to criticize anybody. New Hampshire Republican Party Chairman Jack Kimball immediately disavowed Bettencourt's remarks.^[20]

After McCormack retired in 2011,

As of 2023, Libasci is the current serving bishop.

Sexual abuse

(See main article

Sexual abuse scandal in Manchester diocese

)

In early 2002, Bishop McCormack announced the names of 14 diocesan priests who had been accused of

Ovide M. Lamontagne

said that McCormack and other prominent church members wanted a speedy settlement and, in an example of behaving "pastorally" rather than as a litigant, instructed their attorneys to take a moderate stance and eschew hardline legal tactics. Lamontagne said of the diocese's legal strategy, "That is not typical in terms of client requests."

Court papers released in January 2003 showed that Bishop Gendron destroyed records of sexual abuse by two different priests during the 1980s.

• The first instance was in 1986 for Philip Petit, a diocesan priest who molested a teenager between 1979 and 1981. Petit left the priesthood in 1986 and Gendron destroyed all of his treatment records at Petit's request. Petit was laicized by the Vatican in 2018.[22]
• The second instance happened in 1989, when the
  Servants of the Paraclete treatment facility in New Mexico requested that Gendron destroy the treatment records of Gordon MacRae, a diocesan priest who was a former patient. In 1994, MacRae was sentenced to 33 to 67 years in state prison for molesting children.^[23]

In 2003, the diocese reached a settlement with the New Hampshire Attorney General's Office. The settlement spared the diocese from being criminally charged. In all, in the period of 2002 to 2003, the diocese agreed to a $15.5 million settlement involving 176 claims of sex abuse. The May 2003 settlement of 61 abuse claims for $6.5 million, handled by Manchester attorney

Ovide M. Lamontagne

as diocese counsel, saved the diocese from criminal prosecution.

A 2003 report by the

In 2004, Leo Landry, a priest convicted of sexually abusing minors, described a meeting that he had with Bishop Primeau in 1967. A woman had complained to Primeau that Landry had been seen having sex with her 13-year-old son at the family's lakeside camp in Milton, New Hampshire. Primeau summoned Landry to a meeting, in which Landry confessed his guilt. Primeau told him to stay away from the boy and write a letter of apology to the family. According to Landry, he never wrote the letter and Primeau never reported him to authorities or removed him from ministry.^[26]

In July 2019, the diocese released a list of 73 priests and religious order members who were "credibly accused" of committing acts of sexual abuse.^[27][28] Some of those listed were criminally convicted, defrocked, removed from public ministry, or died without receiving punishment.^[27]

In July 2021, Bishop Libasci was named in a lawsuit accusing him of

at Saints Cyril and Methodius Parish School in New York. The accuser, then 12 or 13 years old, said that Libasci fondled his genitals on "numerous occasions", including one instance when the boy was setting up the altar for Mass. Libasci denied the accusations. In August 2021, the Archdiocese of Boston announced a formal investigation into the accusations. As of April 2023, the investigation is ongoing.

Bishops

Bishops of Manchester

1. Denis Mary Bradley (1883–1904)
2. John Bernard Delany (1904–1906)
3. George Albert Guertin (1906–1931)
4. John Bertram Peterson (1932–1944)
5. Matthew Francis Brady (1944–1959)
6. Ernest John Primeau (1960–1974)
7. Odore Joseph Gendron (1974–1990)
8. Leo Edward O'Neil (1990–1997; coadjutor bishop 1989–1990)
9. John Brendan McCormack (1998–2011)
10. Peter Anthony Libasci (2011–present)

Auxiliary bishops

• Coadjutor Bishop of Providence
  , subsequently succeeding to bishop
• Bishop of Portland
• Francis Joseph Christian (1996–2018)

Other diocesan priests who became bishop

in 1921

Parishes

The parishes in the diocese are as follows:^[29]

• All Saints – Charlestown
• Blessed John XXIII – Nashua
• Blessed Sacrament – Manchester
• Christ the King – Concord
• Corpus Christi – Portsmouth
• Divine Mercy – Peterborough
• Gate of Heaven – Lancaster
• Good Shepherd – Berlin
• Holy Cross – Derry
• Holy Family – Gorham
• Holy Rosary – Hooksett
• Holy Trinity – Plymouth
• Immaculate Conception – Nashua
• Immaculate Conception – Penacook
• Immaculate Heart of Mary – Concord
• Mary Queen of Peace – Hinsdale and Winchester
• North American Martyrs – Colebrook
• Our Lady of Fatima – New London
• Our Lady of Lourdes – Pittsfield
• Our Lady of Mercy – Merrimack
• Our Lady of the Cedars (
  Eastern Catholic) – Manchester
• Our Lady of the Holy Rosary – Rochester
• Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal – Hampton
• Our Lady of the Mountains – North Conway
• Parish of the Assumption – Dover
• Parish of the Holy Spirit – Keene and Troy
• Parish of the Resurrection – Nashua
• Parish of the Transfiguration – Manchester
• Protection of the Blessed Virgin Mary – (
  Eastern Catholic) – Manchester
• Sacred Heart – Lebanon
• Sacred Heart – Manchester
• Sacred Heart – Wilton
• Sacred Heart of Jesus – Greenville
• St. Aloysius of Gonzaga – Nashua
• St. André Bessette – Laconia
• St. Anne – Hampstead
• St. Anne-St. Augustin – Manchester
• St. Anthony – Sanbornville
• St. Anthony of Padua – Manchester
• St. Catherine of Siena – Manchester
• St. Catherine of Siena – Woodsville
• St. Charles Borromeo – Meredith
• St. Christopher – Nashua
• St. Denis – Hanover
• St. Elizabeth Seton – Bedford
• St. Francis of Assisi – Litchfield
• St. Hedwig – Manchester
• St. Helena – Enfield
• St. Ignatius of Loyola – Somersworth
• St. John Neumann – Merrimack
• St. John the Baptist – Suncook
• St. Joseph – Belmont
• St. Joseph – Center Ossipee
• St. Joseph – Claremont
• St. Joseph – Epping
• St. Joseph – Lincoln
• St. Joseph – Woodsville
• St. Joseph Cathedral – Manchester
• St. Joseph the Worker – Nashua
• St. Jude – Londonderry
• St. Katharine Drexel – Alton
• St. Kathryn – Hudson
• St. Lawrence – Goffstown
• St. Leo – Gonic
• St. Luke the Evangelist – Plaistow
• St. Marguerite d'Youville – Groveton
• St. Mark the Evangelist – Londonderry
• St. Mary – Claremont
• St. Mary – Hillsborough
• St. Mary – Newmarket
• St. Mary – Rochester
• St. Mary – Rollinsford
• St. Mary of the Assumption – Tilton
• St. Matthew – Windham
• St. Michael – Exeter
• St. Patrick – Hampton
• St. Patrick – Jaffrey
• St. Patrick – Milford
• St. Patrick – Nashua
• St. Patrick – Newport
• St. Patrick – Pelham
• St. Paul – Franklin
• St. Peter – Auburn
• St. Peter – Farmington
• St. Pius X – Manchester
• St. Raphael – Manchester
• St. Rose of Lima – Littleton
• St. Stanislaus – Nashua
• St. Theresa – Henniker
• St. Theresa – Rye Beach
• St. Thomas Aquinas – Derry
• St. Thomas More – Durham
• Ste. Marie – Manchester
• Saints Mary and Joseph – Salem

Catholic education

Superintendents

• Wilfred J. Lessard (c. 1926)
• William Collins (1940–1948)
• George Murray (1960-1972)
• Joseph P. Duffy (1972–1975)
• Thomas S. Hansberry (1975–1976) Interim
• George J. Soberick (1976–1981)
• Roger Lemoyne (1981–1990)
• Joachim Froehlich (1990–1991)
• William T. Garland (1991–1996)
• Mary Moran (2006–2012)
• Dennis J. Audet (2012–2013) Interim
• John R. Fortin (2013–2016)
• David Thibault (2016- )

High schools

• Bishop Brady High School – Concord
• Bishop Guertin High School – Nashua
• Holy Family Academy* – Manchester
• Mount Royal Academy – Sunapee
• St. Thomas Aquinas High School – Dover
• Trinity High School – Manchester

Colleges

• Magdalen College of the Liberal Arts* – Warner
• Rivier University* – Nashua
• Saint Anselm College* – Goffstown
• Thomas More College of Liberal Arts* – Merrimack

* Schools operated independent of the Diocese

See also

• Catholic Church by country
• Catholic Church in the United States
• Ecclesiastical Province of Boston
• List of Catholic archdioceses (by country and continent)
• List of Catholic dioceses (alphabetical) (including archdioceses)
• List of Catholic dioceses (structured view) (including archdioceses)
• List of Catholic dioceses in the United States

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Roman Catholic Diocese of Manchester.

• Official website
• Diocese of Manchester at Catholic-Hierarchy
• Diocese of Manchester at GCatholic.org
• Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Diocese of Manchester" . Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
• Parable - diocesan magazine