Little known Henning to replace O'Malley as Boston archbishop

By Joshua McElwee

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Pope Francis on Monday named a new leader for the Roman Catholic Church in Boston, succeeding the retiring archbishop, Cardinal Sean O'Malley, one of the pontiff's key U.S. advisers and a lead Vatican official on clergy sexual abuse issues.

Archbishop-designate Richard Henning, 59, will replace O'Malley and will be formally installed into the role on Oct. 31. Originally from New York, Henning had led the Church in Providence, Rhode Island, only since last summer.

Henning is relatively new among U.S. bishops. He was first appointed as an auxiliary bishop of Rockville Centre, New York, by Francis in 2018 before he was made bishop of Providence, the capital of the smallest U.S. state, in 2023.

Hosffman Ospino, a prominent lay voice in the Boston archdiocese, praised Henning's appointment.

Ospino, a theologian at Boston College who is originally from Colombia, told Reuters that Henning's ability to speak Spanish would allow him to "connect well" with Boston's immigrant community.

At a press conference in Boston on Monday, Henning answered one question in Spanish. He also said he was "deeply shocked and surprised" by the appointment.

"I think my first job really is just to be listener and to begin to understand" the archdiocese, Henning said.

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O'Malley turned 80, the typical retirement age for Church service, on June 29. He is a Capuchin Franciscan and often wears the order's plain brown robe.

While he was named the archbishop of crisis-hit Boston by Pope John Paul II in 2003 and was made a cardinal by Pope Benedict XVI in 2006, Francis boosted his public profile, and treated him as a close ally.

In his first year as pope in 2013, Francis appointed O'Malley as a member of his influential kitchen cabinet of high Church officials, known as the Council of Cardinals. In 2014, Francis also tasked O'Malley with leading the Vatican's first official commission on clergy sexual abuse.

The task force, formally known as the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, was roiled last year by the shock resignation of one of its members, a globally known abuse prevention expert.

At the time, O'Malley said he had been "surprised" by the resignation and disagreed with the person's decision.

O'Malley took charge of the Boston archdiocese in 2003 after the forced resignation of the late Cardinal Bernard Law, who had become a focus of the Boston Globe's reporting about how priests accused of sexual abuse had been moved from parish to parish in the archdiocese for years.

Ospino told Reuters that O'Malley had been "the right leader at the right moment."

Not everyone offered praise for O'Malley's tenure. BishopAccountability.org, a website that has tracked the clergy abuse crisis, issued a statement criticizing how O'Malley determined which accused clergy would be named publicly and called his legacy "dubious."

The Vatican did not say when O'Malley would step down from his Vatican roles, but, according to age limits on Church service, would be expected to do so soon.

(Reporting by Joshua McElwee; Editing by Keith Weir and Jonathan Oatis)