August 6, 2024
Pope Francis has named Most Rev. Richard G. Henning ’86C, ’88G as the 10th bishop and seventh archbishop of the Archdiocese of Boston, MA. Archbishop-elect Henning is currently the bishop of the Diocese of Providence.
Archbishop-elect Henning, who describes himself as “a proud alumnus of St. John’s University,” assumed the role of Bishop of the Diocese of Providence, RI, in 2023. He will be installed as Archbishop of Boston on October 31 at the Cathedral of the Holy Cross.
The oldest of five children and the son of a New York City firefighter and a nurse, Archbishop-elect Henning recalled that his journey toward priesthood began within his churchgoing family, but truly crystalized after he heard a Vincentian priest discuss vocations when he was a student at Holy Name of Mary Church in Valley Stream, NY. “I don’t recall his name, but after he spoke several of us said we wanted to be priests. Apparently, with me, it stuck.”
After graduating from Chaminade High School in Mineola, NY, Archbishop-elect Henning received a full scholarship to St. John’s. He expressed enduring gratitude to the University for its generosity, which allowed his parents to portion more of their resources to his siblings’ educations.
“I loved St. John’s,” he stressed. A member of the St. John’s College Honors program, Archbishop-elect Henning cited the late John J. Coffey, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Philosophy and Director of the program, as a particular influence.
“He was an extraordinary teacher,” he said. “While certainly a religious man, his influence on me was more on the human side, which is as important as the spiritual side for someone with a religious calling. You want to be a well-rounded human being. He had a great to desire to learn and to know.”
“He fostered a great sense of connection for those of us in that small program,” he continued. “St. John’s is such a large University; being in this group really humanized the scale of the place for me. In the program, I knew everyone by name and they were my closest friends.”
Archbishop-elect Henning also remains close friends with fellow alumnus Most Rev. Robert J. Brennan ’84C, Bishop of Brooklyn.
Archbishop-elect Henning attended daily Mass at St. John’s and came to know several Vincentian priests as well. “St. John’s really helped expand my mind and my human formation,” he said.
The advice Archbishop-elect Henning received from a priest in his parish (where he also worked as a sacristan) was to live his life and see if this calling stuck. He majored in History at St. John’s, and by the time he graduated the call to priesthood became more intense.
“It was a vocation that grew and matured over many years,” he recalled. “I don’t have a dramatic conversion story. I just grew up in faith.”
While he enjoyed his experience with both the Marianists at Chaminade and the Vincentians at St. John’s, Archbishop-elect Henning felt strongly he was called to the parish priesthood and was ordained to serve in the Diocese of Rockville Centre, NY, in 1992.
During his early priesthood, Archbishop-elect Henning served at St. Peter of Alcantara Church in Port Washington, NY, where he ministered very closely to its Spanish-speaking community. Archbishop-elect Henning went on to graduate studies and teaching for nearly two decades while living at St. Patrick’s Church in Bay Shore, NY. Ordained an Auxiliary Bishop in 2018, he noted that staying close to ministry can be challenging when faced with so many administrative tasks.
“Whatever administrate role I’ve been in, I’ve tried to make space for pastoral engagement of one kind or another,” he stressed. “Sometimes that means just being pastoral to the people with whom I’m working. That’s what my heart needs—and I try to make sure that’s always in my mix.”
Archbishop-elect Henning likens the role of bishop to that of pastor in a parish church. “It gives you an opportunity to make your own impact on the life of a diocese, which is exciting.”