Boston’s new Archbishop Richard Henning encourages his flock to develop a “deeply personal” relationship with God

Boston, MA October 31, 2024 7:00 pm

Newly installed Archbishop Richard Henning of Boston on Thursday urged residents of the archdiocese to maintain a relationship with God even when it hurts, saying that is what God does for them.

“He gives us a precious gift, the gift of his heart: his Son,” Henning said Oct. 31 during a packed two-hour installation Mass at Boston’s Cathedral of the Holy Cross.

Henning, 60, a native of Long Island, New York, and most recently bishop of Providence, Rhode Island, replaces Cardinal Sean O’Malley, who has led the Archdiocese of Boston since 2003.

As the 10th bishop and sixth archbishop of Boston, he is the first head of the diocese to come from New York, which he noted often raises questions.

Since he was announced as the next archbishop of Boston in August, Henning said, “people have been asking me questions about myself—all kinds of questions, about my opinions, my personality, my history. The most common question I’ve received over the past few months goes something like this: “Have you ever been, are you now, or will you ever be a Red Sox fan?”

The parishioners laughed. Henning then added, “While this may be a very important issue here in Boston, along with all the others, it seems to me that the most important thing that you, the people of this archdiocese, should know about me is what I believe.”

Earlier, Cardinal Christophe Pierre, apostolic nuncio to the United States, presented Henning with a letter of appointment from Pope Francis, and, following tradition, Henning walked around the cathedral, showing it to parishioners.

O’Malley and Pierre then escorted Henning to the bishop’s chair to the left of the altar in which he sat, thus taking formal possession of the archdiocese, one of four created in 1808.

O’Malley, who has greatly strengthened the archdiocese since the disastrous departure of Cardinal Bernard Law, received a standing ovation at the start of Mass after Pierre’s praise. He received another one near the end of the Mass, when Henning told O’Malley that he found “mixed feelings” among Catholics in Boston at the changing of the guard “because of the magnitude of your ministry.”

New spiritual father

The procession of several hundred priests into the cathedral was more joyful than solemn. Outside, to the right of the main entrance, the musicians of the Neocatechumenal Way sang stirring songs of praise to the accompaniment of eight guitars, a ukulele, two bongs and a shofar, a ram’s horn used in Jewish religious ceremonies. As the priests approached the music, many smiled and some sang along as they walked up the steps into the building.

Sean Gibney, 47, of Burlington, Massachusetts, who coordinated the group, acknowledged it was an unusual way to welcome a new archbishop.

“Now it is. But it wasn’t always like this. It was the people who always welcomed their shepherd,” Gibney told CNA, noting that in the early Church the people chose bishops by approval.

“So we consider this a completely normal thing. He’s a shepherd because we’re sheep,” Gibney said, referring to Henning. “We feel that faith requires us to go and salute. He was sent in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.”

David Henrique, a 24-year-old East Boston resident who sang and played guitar, was asked what Henning’s appearance meant to him and why he came.

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“For me, we have a new father,” Enrique said. “Cardinal Sean has been our father for the past 21 years, and I come to welcome my new father—my new spiritual father and our shepherd.”

God is love

Recognizing the presence of many cultures in the archdiocese, the first reading was conducted in Spanish and the second in Haitian Creole. Worshipers’ prayers were in English, Spanish, Haitian Creole and Vietnamese.

About half the cathedral was occupied by white-robed priests, a turnout Henning said “stunned” him. Some, he noted, were from his home diocese of Rockville Center on Long Island, and many from the Archdiocese of Boston.

After repeating the gospel from John 17, Henning spoke for 21 minutes without any notes.

He encouraged listeners to develop a “deeply personal” relationship with God, a relationship that he noted required demands on both sides.

“God is love, and God calls us to love. And not in the spirit of ’70s love songs,” Henning said. “It is love that sweats, bleeds and dies.”

Using Pope Francis’s idea of ​​the Catholic Church as a “field hospital,” Henning expanded on the visual by saying, “But in a field hospital there is only one doctor, and that is Jesus Christ. The rest of us are patients in need of healing.”

Proper order is essential to a fruitful relationship with God, he said.

“Whenever people think they are gods, everyone else has to be a slave,” Henning said. “This God makes us free.”

He quoted Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a German Lutheran pastor and anti-Nazi dissident, on what Bonhoeffer called “the cost of discipleship.”

“Faith is not just a list of beliefs. It’s not just a feeling. It’s a lifetime,” Henning said.

When O’Malley took over the archdiocese in 2003, the chair was vacant since Law resigned in disgrace in December 2002, 11 months after the archdiocese priest sex abuse scandal broke.

Before Thursday’s Mass, about a dozen protesters held signs outside the cathedral criticizing both the archbishops and the church for sexually abusing priests.

Henning acknowledged the ongoing pain.

“This Church of Boston is literally wounded by the Church because of its failure to show compassion—sins against the innocent,” Henning said.

He noted that the Church has made efforts in recent decades “to protect vulnerable segments of the population.”

“But we still feel the weight of these wounds,” Henning said. “And we owe it to the victims and survivors who tell their stories, as through their courage they help protect new generations.”