diff --git a/include/openmc/settings.h b/include/openmc/settings.h
index ce2e7b10a..e873e3d3e 100644
--- a/include/openmc/settings.h
+++ b/include/openmc/settings.h
@@ -29,6 +29,7 @@ namespace settings {
 
 #ifdef LIBMESH
 extern std::unique_ptr<libMesh::LibMeshInit> LMI;
+extern libMesh::Parallel::Communicator* libmesh_comm;
 #endif
 
 // Boolean flags
diff --git a/src/initialize.cpp b/src/initialize.cpp
index fcb6d98b1..7ec7ab0f5 100644
--- a/src/initialize.cpp
+++ b/src/initialize.cpp
@@ -68,7 +68,11 @@ int openmc_init(int argc, char* argv[], const void* intracomm)
 #endif
 
 // initialize libmesh
-if (!settings::LMI) settings::LMI = std::make_unique<libMesh::LibMeshInit>(argc, argv, n_threads);
+if (!settings::LMI && !libMesh::initialized())
+{
+  settings::LMI = std::make_unique<libMesh::LibMeshInit>(argc, argv, n_threads);
+  settings::libmesh_comm = &(settings::LMI->comm());
+}
 
 #endif
 
diff --git a/src/mesh.cpp b/src/mesh.cpp
index 72abb6d16..7306d40f0 100644
--- a/src/mesh.cpp
+++ b/src/mesh.cpp
@@ -2190,10 +2190,11 @@ LibMesh::centroid(int bin) const {
 std::string LibMesh::library() const { return "libmesh"; }
 
 void LibMesh::initialize() {
-    // always 3 for unstructured meshes
+  // always 3 for unstructured meshes
   n_dimension_ = 3;
 
-  m_ = std::unique_ptr<libMesh::Mesh>(new libMesh::Mesh(settings::LMI->comm(), 3));
+  m_ = std::make_unique<libMesh::Mesh>(*settings::libmesh_comm, 3);
+
   m_->read(filename_);
   m_->prepare_for_use();
 
diff --git a/src/settings.cpp b/src/settings.cpp
index 3326f0029..4a2b3432d 100644
--- a/src/settings.cpp
+++ b/src/settings.cpp
@@ -39,6 +39,7 @@ namespace settings {
 
 #ifdef LIBMESH
 std::unique_ptr<libMesh::LibMeshInit> LMI;
+libMesh::Parallel::Communicator* libmesh_comm;
 #endif
 
 // Default values for boolean flags