(RNS) — In a surprise announcement, Pope Francis has appointed Bishop Richard G. Henning of the Diocese of Providence as archbishop-elect of Boston. Henning, who has only been a bishop since 2018, will replace 80-year-old retiring Cardinal Seán P. O’Malley, who has served as one of Francis’ closest advisers since the beginning of his papacy.
Asking for prayers at a press conference after the announcement Monday (Aug. 5), Henning said, “I am not worthy of this call. I was deeply shocked and surprised by this call, but I know the goodness of God suffices in all things. I will trust in him.”
“I’m humbled by the size and the history of this archdiocese, and I am very well aware that I have a lot to learn,” said Henning, who emphasized that he would lean on O’Malley as a “tutor.”
Henning, who has led the Diocese of Providence, Rhode Island, and its some 600,000 Catholics for just over a year, will now lead an archdiocese of more than 1.8 million Catholics in a region of the country where Catholicism, though declining, still remains a dominant religion. Before his appointment to Providence, Henning was an auxiliary bishop in the Diocese of Rockville Centre, New York.
At the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, Henning has served on the Committee on Doctrine and the Subcommittee on the Church in Latin America.
Introducing Henning, O’Malley emphasized his “heart of a pastor,” fluency in Spanish and extensive academic credentials. “The arrival of a new archbishop is always a time of renewal and hope,” O’Malley said.
San Jose, California, Bishop Oscar Cantú, who has served with Henning on the Subcommittee on the Church in Latin America, told Religion News Service in an email that he was “happy” for the Archdiocese of Boston because they will have a “loving, compassionate shepherd.”
Bishop Richard G. Henning. Courtesy photo
Cantú said he had gotten to know Henning while both were studying in Rome. “I found him to be kind and pleasant, always listening before speaking,” wrote Cantú.
On the subcommittee, Henning “was always measured and thoughtful in his comments,” Cantú said, as well as “friendly, personal, and genuine.”
Echoing Francis’ famous words in an interview after he was elected as pope, Henning told reporters, “The first thing is simply to say that I am a sinner in need of grace and that I place my faith, my trust, my hope in the Lord Jesus who is bread for the world and the king of love.”
Henning recounted an ad limina visit when New York bishops met with Francis and the pope urged the bishops to practice closeness to the Lord, their people and other bishops. Henning said he told Francis that closeness to the pope should be added.
“On this day in particular, I feel very close to the Holy Father and again grateful for his shepherding of the universal church,” Henning told reporters.
In an interview with a Providence TV station, Henning emphasized that while he was grateful for the pope’s trust and dedicated to obedience, he had “mixed feelings” about leaving Rhode Island.
“I have loved Rhode Island so much, and so even as I will certainly throw myself into this new mission, I will always feel Rhode Island here,” said Henning, pointing at his heart.
Given his short time in Providence, Henning said at the press conference that he had felt “safe” and that when the apostolic nuncio called him, he thought it was about another matter and he answered the call “innocently.”
Henning’s appointment comes five years after O’Malley’s 75th birthday, the age when bishops are required to submit a retirement letter to the pope, who can choose to wait longer to accept it.
Cardinal Sean O’Malley of Boston and seven other bishops celebrate Mass on the U.S.-Mexico border in Arizona to commemorate the deaths of migrants in the desert and to pray for immigration reform on April 1, 2014.
O’Malley became archbishop of Boston in 2003 as the archdiocese was still reeling from the Boston Globe’s revelations of extensive clergy sex abuse and coverups.
The Capuchin priest had served in Hispanic ministry in the Archdiocese of Washington before becoming coadjutor bishop of the Diocese of St. Thomas in the Virgin Islands in 1984, then Bishop of Fall River, Massachusetts, in 1992, and then bishop of Palm Beach, Florida, in 2002.
After becoming archbishop, O’Malley was elevated to cardinal by Pope Benedict XVI in 2006, and he went on to become the only North American member of Francis’ council of cardinals. In the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, O’Malley served as the chair of the Committee on Pro-Life Activities.
