Pope names LI priest to be bishop in N.H.

The pope has named Msgr. Peter Libasci, a leading priest on Long Island, as the new bishop of the Diocese of Manchester, N.H.

Libasci, 59, is an auxiliary bishop to Bishop William Murphy of the Diocese of Rockville Centre, serving as the Church's representative for the Eastern Vicariate, or eastern part of Long Island.

"While I will greatly miss his wise counsel and tireless apostolic spirit as Vicar of the Eastern Region of our Diocese, I rejoice that the Holy Father has chosen one of the priests of this Diocese to lead the Diocese of Manchester," Bishop Murphy said in a statement Monday.

"As priest, as pastor and as bishop, Bishop Libasci brought a deep sense of the holy to all the many pastoral efforts that have marked his tenure in this Diocese which will always be his home," Murphy added.

Libasci spent Monday in his new diocese, where he will officially replace Bishop John McCormack on Dec. 8. "I am grateful to Almighty God who has brought me into being, to my parents who gave me life and to my family, friends and my Holy Catholic Church -- all of who have sustained me to this very hour," Libasci said in a statement. "These include Bishop William Murphy . . . my brother priests and deacons and all the lay faithful I was privileged to serve as priest and bishop in that Diocese since my priestly ordination in 1978."

In New Hampshire, Libasci will face some of the same challenges Catholic bishops around the country are grappling with including the fallout from the nationwide priest sex abuse scandal and declining Mass attendance, but also some issues specific to the state, said Michele Dillon, a scholar of Catholicism and a professor of sociology at the University of New Hampshire.

While the diocese there, which serves 300,000 Catholics, is relatively strong, New Hampshire and Vermont are historically the two least religious states in the United States, she said.

Libasci served as pastor of Saint Therese of Lisieux parish in Montauk from 1999 to 2007, and oversaw the construction of a new church.

He has also served at Our Lady of Good Counsel in Inwood, Ss. Cyril and Methodius in Deer Park, and St. Raymond's in East Rockaway. He was ordained a priest of the Diocese of Rockville Centre in 1978.