Bishop of Providence Richard Henning named successor to Boston’s Cardinal O’Malley - The Boston Globe (2024)

O’Malley and Henning celebrated a Mass at 9 a.m. Monday in the Bethany Chapel at the archdiocese’s Pastoral Center in Braintree.

During a 6-minute homily, O’Malley said a new head of the church in Boston represented “a moment of renewal, of joy, and of gratitude.”

“It will bring you many challenges, I promise you that, but it will also bring many, many joys,” he said to Henning.

A press conference is scheduled for 10 a.m, the archidocese said in a statement Monday.

Henning and O’Malley issued a statement ahead of the press conference.

“I am grateful to His Holiness Pope Francis for his confidence in me and for his conferral of this new mission as Archbishop of Boston,” Henning said. “I receive this appointment relying upon divine Providence, aware that this is the Lord’s Church and that I am no more than an unworthy servant. I would also like to express my gratitude to His Eminence Cardinal Sean O’Malley who has served the Church of Boston for many faithful and joyful years.”

O’Malley, in the same statement, said the selection of Henning demonstrates Pope Francis’ “ongoing pastoral care for the people of the Archdiocese.”

“On behalf of the entire Archdiocese of Boston, including our priests, religious, deacons, and laity we welcome Archbishop-elect Richard Henning,” O’Malley said. “I look forward to our people and the wider community getting to know our new Archbishop-elect in the days, weeks, months and years ahead. He ministers with the heart of a pastor with a sincere commitment to serving Christ and the Church.”

Henning will be formally installed into his new duties at the Cathedral of the Holy Cross, the mother church of the archdiocese, in the South End on Oct. 31, the archdiocese said.

Henning, 59, has been in his current role for just over a year. The news that he is has been named the next archbishop of Boston was first reported by Catholic commentator Rocco Palmo in a post on the social media platform X, who described it as a “shock pick.”

O’Malley, named archbishop in 2003 and cardinal in 2006, is a close ally of Pope Francis, who asked him to remain at his post after 2019, when he submitted his required letter of resignation.

O’Malley participated in the 2013 papal conclave that elected Francis and is an original member of the influential Council of Cardinals, formed by Francis soon after his election.

Before becoming bishop of Providence, Henning served as auxiliary bishop for the Diocese of Rockville Centre, N.Y., from 2018 to 2022. He was then a coadjutor bishop alongside Bishop Thomas Tobin in Providence until Tobin’s retirement in 2023.

The Rockville Centre diocese, which covers most of Long Island, filed for bankruptcy in 2020 after hundreds of sexual abuse cases were filed against it under New York’s Child Victims Act, which allowed survivors time to file claims despite the statute of limitations. In May, the case was sent to mediation after the majority of survivors rejected a proposed $200 million settlement and the archdiocese sought to dismiss its own bankruptcy.

When he was named as coadjutant bishop of Providence, Henning told the Globe that Rockville Centre’s bankruptcy has been “a long and difficult process.” He said it was a “learning experience” that he said he hopes to not go through ever again.

“The decision to enter into Chapter 11 was driven by the desire to first have the resources to address survivors, but also to be able to continue the mission of the church,” Henning told the Globe in a 2022 interview.

He said he has respect for Rockville Centre Diocese’s leadership for their handling of the bankruptcy.

Handling of sexual abuse was a central occupation of O’Malley’s tenure, said Massimo fa*ggioli, a professor at Villanova University’s department of theology and religious studies.

“He was called to clean up the mess left by Cardinal Law and also to clean up the mess created by the Vatican itself in dealing with Cardinal Law,” fa*ggioli said. “In the US, he was appointed to give a credible face to the fight against the abuses, and in that he has succeeded.”

The Cardinal also criticized Pope Francis on the issue when the pope was dismissive of allegations against a Chilean bishop in 2018.

But O’Malley’s efforts in the Vatican as president of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors have been less successful, fa*ggioli said.

O’Malley has been the commission’s chief since it was created in 2014. fa*ggioli said that O’Malley could have asked the Vatican for more resources and personnel.

“Cardinal O’Malley wasn’t really as present in the day-by-day running of the pontifical commission, and he let the pontifical commission lose some of the credibility it could have had,” fa*ggioli said

In 2023, Jesuit priest and sex abuse expert Hans Zollner resigned from the commission, citing operational concerns, including in areas related to accountability and transparency. O’Malley disputed his criticisms.

Some critics think O’Malley didn’t do enough in terms of accountability, even in his own archdiocese. For example, he was criticized by some abuse victims and their advocates for omitting some names from a list of credibly accused priests in Boston, which the archdiocese released in 2011.

O’Malley said this was because some were from other religious orders. Many of the omitted priests had passed away or were unable to respond to accusations.

Before his time in Boston, O’Malley was praised for how he handled the fallout from clergy sexual abuse scandals as the bishop of Fall River and Palm Beach, Fla. In Fall River, he instituted one of the church’s first comprehensive sexual abuse policies and settled 101 claims.

O’Malley, a Capuchin Franciscan often seen in a brown habit, signifying the order’s simplicity and dedication to supporting the poor, speaks seven languages, worked among poor immigrants in Washington, D.C., and opened homeless shelters and an AIDS hospice as the new bishop in the Virgin Islands in the 1980s.

O’Malley would leave Henning with an archdiocese in much better financial shape than he received it. It had a $15 million annual deficit when he took over in 2003. In 2023, it had a $13 million surplus.

Yet, the archdiocese still faces some headwinds. Weekly church attendance and Catholic school enrollment have continued to decline. Attendance fell from 316,000 in 2003 to 201,000 in 2019, before the COVID-19 crisis. Enrollment dropped from 55,000 in 2003 to 32,000 today.

Thomas H. Groome, a professor of theology and religious education at Boston College, called the decline a worldwide phenomenon in the church that can’t be attributed to any one leader.

“He’s helped us to hang in and cherish the richness of our Catholic faith even while we are embarrassed by and terribly disappointed and betrayed by the clergy sex abuse scandal,” Groome said.

In Providence, Henning was replacing a bishop, Tobin, who was known for his outspoken opposition to gay marriage and abortion rights. Tobin criticized Pope Francis in 2020 for his support for same-sex civil unions.

In contrast, Henning said in his 2022 interview that his beliefs align “entirely” with the pope’s. (Pope Francis has maintained Catholic doctrine against abortion and gay marriage but has said the church should not be “obsessed” with them.”

Henning was born in Rockville Centre, N.Y., in 1964, and is the oldest of five children. His father was a firefighter and his mother was a nurse. He is fluent in Spanish and Italian.

The Reverend Laura Everett, executive director of the Massachusetts Council of Churches, said in a statement she welcomed Henning to Boston and noted that several other denominations have also recently chosen new local leaders.

“We give thanks for Cardinal O’Malley’s pastoral care and dedication over these past twenty-one years,” Everett said. “A number of new Church leaders will begin their episcopacies in the next few months, giving the whole Church a chance to rebuild and grow closer together.”

Michael Bello contributed to this report.

Christopher Huffaker can be reached at christopher.huffaker@globe.com. Follow him @huffakingit. Erin Douglas can be reached at erin.douglas@globe.com. Follow her @erinmdouglas23. Danny McDonald can be reached at daniel.mcdonald@globe.com. Follow him @Danny__McDonald.