In surprise move, Pope Francis appoints Rhode Island bishop to head Boston archdiocese (2024)

In a decision that surprised many in Rome and the United States, Pope Francis has named Richard Garth Henning, 59, current bishop of Providence, Rhode Island, as the seventh Archbishop of Boston, the Vatican announced on Aug. 5.

He did so, after accepting the resignation of Cardinal Seàn Patrick O’Malley, O.F.M, 80, who governed the archdiocese for just over 21 years, with humility and pastoral skill and succeeded in raising it out of the crisis caused by the sexual abuse of minors scandal that exploded under his predecessor, Cardinal Bernard Law.

The selection of Bishop Henning was a surprise, as his name had not been among those rumored for the appointment.

Archbishop-elect Henning will be officially installed on Oct. 31, Cardinal O'Malley announced at a press conference this morning.

Pope Francis had first appointed Bishop Henning as auxiliary bishop of Rockville Centre in June 2018, then as coadjutor bishop of Providence in November 2022. He succeeded Thomas Tobin in May 2023 as bishop of that diocese upon Bishop Tobin’s retirement.

During his time as auxiliary bishop of Rockville Centre, Bishop Henning had to address the problem of multiple abuse cases and the diocese’s filing for bankruptcy.

He now takes over a much larger diocese. The area covered by the Boston archdiocese has a total population of 4,420,879 people of which approximately 47 percent are Catholic. According to the 2023 Vatican yearbook, it has 266 parishes, served by 600 diocesan priests and 352 priests of religious orders, 292 permanent deacons, 478 men religious, and 995 women religious, and 101 institutes of education.

Bishop Henning comes to this large archdiocese with limited experience of governing a diocese compared to his predecessor, Cardinal O’Malley, who had served as bishop for almost 20 years before coming to Boston. The cardinal first served as coadjutor bishop to St Thomas diocese in the Virgin Islands 1984, then as bishop from 1985 until 1992 when John Paul II named him bishop of Fall River diocese, and ten years later assigned him to the Palm Beach diocese. He dealt so well with the sexual abuse scandals in these last two dioceses that the Polish pope appointed him to lead the scandal-hit Boston archdiocese on July 1, 2003.

Born October 17, 1964, in Rockville Centre, N.Y., Richard Henning, the oldest of five siblings, grew up spending summers “on a small island in the Great South Bay where his family has gone for generations,” according to his official biography on the Providence Cathedral website. It adds that he has a “lifelong passion for the water, sailing, boating and kayaking.”

At a press conference quoted in the Providence Journal, he said he felt the call to the priesthood in the fifth grade while attending a Catholic grammar school in suburban Valley Stream, N.Y. He recalled that a priest visited to speak about vocations, and afterward he had turned to a classmate and said, “I think I want to be a priest.”

“That idea came and went over my childhood and never quite went away,” Bishop Henning said. “You’re kind of feeling that tug of the Holy Spirit....I realized at one point I had to respond one way or the other.”

Bishop Henning’s father worked as a firefighter and his mother was a nurse who later became a homemaker, he said. “Really, my vocation was born in the home with my parents,” he said. “Both chose paths in life that were devoted to others.”

He studied history at St. John’s University in Queens for both his bachelor's (1986) and master’s (1988) degrees. He attended the seminary of the Immaculate Conception in Huntington, and was ordained a priest on May 30, 1992. He gained a licentiate in Biblical Theology in 2000 from The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., and a licentiate in Biblical Theology in 2007 from the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas, known as the “Angelicum,” in Rome. He is fluent in English and Spanish, speaks Italian and is able to read French, Greek and Hebrew.

After ordination he served as parochial vicar at St. Peter of Alcantara Church, New York, 1992-1997, after which he was assigned to graduate studies from 1997 to 2002. During this time, he helped in a number of parishes in New York, Arlington, Va., and Washington, D.C.

He served first as associate professor of sacred scripture at Immaculate Conception Seminary, 2002-2007, and then full professor of sacred scripture, 2007-2012, and was also Formation Adviser at the seminary from 2002-2012.

Archbishop-elect Henning’s predecessor is widely recognized as having made a major contribution to the Catholic church not only in Boston and in the United States, but also to the Catholic church worldwide.

Benedict XVI gave O’Malley the cardinal’s red hat on March 24, 2006, in recognition of the work he was doing in Boston, but the Capuchin friar only wore the cardinal’s robes on official occasions, preferring instead to wear his friar’s habit and sandals.

Notwithstanding the fact that he is American, Cardinal Seàn—as he is popularly known—was considered “papabile” (candidate to be pope) at the 2013 conclave, following Benedict’s resignation. In fact, he was the fourth most voted cardinal in the first ballot on the evening of March 12, and received 10 votes. It was the first time in history that an American cardinal was considered as a serious contender for the papacy, as I reported in my book, The Election of Pope Francis: An Inside Account of the Conclave that Changed History. In the subsequent three ballots, however, he received decreasingly fewer votes and got none on the final ballot that elected Pope Francis on March 13.

After the conclave, Pope Francis established a Council of Cardinal Advisors to assist him in the reform of the Roman Curia and in the governance of the universal church. To ensure that the advisors were representative of the global church, Francis chose at least one cardinal from each continent, and Cardinal O’Malley was among them. Today, however, for reasons of age, only two of the original eight members are still on that council: the Boston cardinal is one of them, the other is the Indian Cardinal Oswald Gracias, archbishop of Mumbai, who turns 80 on Dec. 24.

Pope Francis set up the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors on March 22, 2014. He named Cardinal O’Malley as one of its members, and at the year’s end appointed him to be president of that commission, a position he still holds. In that role, he has made a major contribution to the church’s effort to combat the sexual abuse of minors by clergy and to ensure a safe environment for minors and vulnerable people in all church institutions. At the time of writing, the cardinal is still president of the commission.

Cardinal O’Malley has given loyal and steadfast service to Francis throughout his pontificate and when, on reaching the age of 75 on June 29, 2019, he submitted his letter of resignation as all bishops are required to do, the Jesuit pope asked him to continue as archbishop of Boston for some more years. As a gesture of his esteem for the Capuchin cardinal, the first Latin American pope allowed him to remain as archbishop for more than a month after his 80th birthday. But now, after 21 years as archbishop of Boston, the time has come for him to pass the baton to his younger successor.

Editors' note: for more on Gerard O'Connell's work asAmerica'sVatican correspondent, seethis interview.