Red Mass

The Most Reverend Peter A. Libasci, D.D., Bishop of Manchester, and the Catholic Lawyers Guild of New Hampshire cordially invite all associated with the study and administration of justice to join them for the celebration of the Red Mass at St. Joseph Cathedral in Manchester, New Hampshire on Tuesday, October 7, 2014, at 5:15 p.m. The annual celebration of the Red Mass is designed to provide all attending members of the legal community, including judges, government officials, legislators, lawyers, and members of the law enforcement community, the opportunity to join those who administer justice in the Church and reflect on the power and responsibilities of their offices.

The Red Mass this year will be celebrated by Bishop Peter A. Libasci. The homilist for the Mass will be The Most Reverend Salvatore R. Matano, Ninth Bishop of Rochester, NY.

Following the Red Mass, the Catholic Lawyers Guild will hold its ninth annual dinner at Fratello’s Italian Grille, at which it will honor the recipient of the Saint Thomas More award. This year, Laurel Ann O’Connor, Esq., an attorney with the New Hampshire Department of Justice and a parishioner of St. Thomas Aquinas Parish in Derry, will be honored with the award.

RSVP by September 30, 2014
$30 per person
Make checks payable to: RCBM
Send Replies to:
Finance Office, Diocese of Manchester
Box 310, Manchester, NH 03105-0310

The Most Rev. Salvatore R. Matano, Ninth Bishop of Rochester

Bishop Matano was born and raised in Providence, Rhode Island. He attended Our Lady of Providence Seminary College in Warwick, where he earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Philosophy.

In 1971, he was ordained to the priesthood by James Cardinal Hickey in St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome. He attended the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, where he was awarded a Licentiate Degree in Sacred Theology in 1972, and later received a Doctorate in Canon Law in 1983 from that same university.

Bishop Matano served as Assistant Pastor at Our Lady of Grace Parish in Johnston, Rhode Island and as a faculty member of Our Lady of Providence Seminary High School in Providence from 1972-1977. Bishop Matano subsequently served in various roles in the Chancery of the Diocese of Providence, including the Assistant Chancellor, Vicar General, and Moderator of the Curia and as a pastor of a parish in the Diocese. The Bishop also enjoyed five years as a Special Lecturer in the Undergraduate and Graduate Departments of Theology at Providence College of the Dominican Fathers, between 1995 and 2000.

Bishop Matano served as Secretary to the Apostolic Nuncio in Washington, DC from 1991-1992 and again from 2000-2005. In 2005, he was ordained as Bishop of Burlington, VT. In January 2014, Bishop Matano was installed as Bishop of Rochester, NY.

Laurel Ann O’Connor, Esq.

Laurel O’Connor earned her law degree from Suffolk University Law School. Attorney O’Connor practiced as an Elder Law Attorney at Michael Professional Association from 1994 until 1998. From 1998 to 2008, she served as Staff Attorney and Director of the Senior Citizens Law Project at New Hampshire Legal Assistance. From 2009 to 2011, she worked as a contract lawyer for the Consumer Protection Bureau’s Administrative Prosecutions Unit of the New Hampshire Attorney General’s Office. In July 2011, she joined the New Hampshire Department of Justice, working in the same capacity at the Administrative Prosecutions Unit, where she is currently employed. She is Discipline Counsel for the New Hampshire Board of Nursing. In March 2013, Attorney O’Connor was appointed by New Hampshire Governor Maggie Hassan to the position of Assistant Attorney General for a five year term.

Attorney O’Connor is a parishioner of St. Thomas Aquinas Parish in Derry, where she is an active volunteer. She is a certified Youth Minister who helps to run the parish’s Life Teen Youth Group and Confirmation Program (ninth and tenth grade religious education), and has planned and organized retreats for the youth, the religious education teachers, and women of the parish. She chaperoned groups of teenagers to World Youth Day in Toronto, Canada and Cologne, Germany and has taken teens to Franciscan University’s Steubenville East Youth Conference every summer for over 15 years. She is a lector and an extraordinary minister of Holy Communion and has served on the Parish Council.

In addition to her work with the parish, she is a volunteer at Pinkerton Academy, where she designs and sews costumes for the Pinkerton Players and has been a Boy and Girl Scout leader. She currently serves on the Executive Board of the Marion Garrish Community Center in Derry, NH.