Boston Archbishop-elect Henning: ‘My mission is going to be the people in front of me’

CNA Staff, Aug 10, 2024 / 08:00 am

Archbishop-elect Richard Henning spoke with “EWTN News In Depth” about his upcoming role as archbishop of the Archdiocese of Boston, highlighting his dedication to serving the local community: “My mission will be focused on the people right in front of me.”

The call from the apostolic nuncio, Henning said, caught him by surprise. Henning, 59, has been bishop of the Diocese of Providence since May 1, 2023, and coadjutor bishop of Providence since November 2022. The Archdiocese of Boston, home to more than 1.8 million Catholics, is one of the largest in the United States. 

Henning recalled receiving the call during an already-exciting day — he was preparing to receive a catechumen into the Church.

“The nuncio called me just as I arrived back in my room, and — you know, they have that expression in the movies: ‘You better sit down for this.’ Well, that was the first time in my life I understood what they were talking about,” he said.

“I had to sit down for that one. I just was so surprised with only a year in as the diocese bishop, I never expected a call like that,” Henning said.

“EWTN News In Depth” host Catherine Hadro asked Henning how he would describe himself, noting that many people are quick to try to define bishops as either conservative or liberal.  

“Well, what I said at the press conference was, ‘I’m a sinner in need of grace,’” he said with a chuckle. 

“I have to admit that personally, I resist those kinds of categories because I think the honest truth is they don’t really accord with the depth and the breadth of the Church’s own life and ministry engagement in the culture,” he continued. 

“It tends to see only the surface, the social or political elements of a person’s life or of society itself. It strikes me that God asks more of us and that the Church’s tradition is so much more than that,” he said. 

“It really doesn’t matter which faction people claim to belong to. I’m to be pastor to all of them,” Henning added.

Henning said he doesn’t identify in either category as his “first identity is as a disciple of Jesus Christ,” though he noted that has “implications” for how he engages in the world.  

“I’m not suggesting that we live off in a land of our own. We have to engage in society,” he said. “But I think we always have to come to that engagement as best we can from the point of view of the Gospel, which is always, again, looking beyond the surface, looking for the depths.” 

Henning was born in 1964 in Rockville Centre, New York. The oldest of five children, he was raised in a Catholic family, and as a Long Island native, maintains his love for the water, sailing, boating, and kayaking. 

He studied history as an undergraduate at St. John’s University in Queens, New York, and later attended the Seminary of the Immaculate Conception in Huntington, New York, and was ordained in 1992. Fluent in Spanish, Henning also speaks Italian, can read French, Hebrew, and Greek, and is learning Portuguese. He earned a licentiate in biblical theology at The Catholic University of America and a doctorate in biblical theology from the University of St. Thomas Aquinas in Rome.

The archbishop-elect succeeds Cardinal Sean O’Malley, whom Henning said he is “in awe of.” When asked about his predecessor, Henning said: “I’ve admired him for many years.” 

O’Malley, the longtime archbishop of Boston, is retiring at 80 — five years past the age at which prelates normally tender their resignation to the Holy See. O’Malley is known for his work confronting sexual abuse and has headed the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors since 2014. 

“I stand in awe of his own qualities of fidelity, his biblical preaching, his humility, his devotion to the Holy Father and to the Church,” Henning said. “I certainly will try to imitate his example, but I will come with the desire now to surrender myself to this new ministry.”

“I know that Boston is a large archdiocese, and therefore, as you said, it’s considered prominent,” he added. “But I think my mission is going to be the people in front of me, and that’s where my focus is going to begin and hopefully remain.”