BOSTON (AP) — Pope Francis accepted the resignation of Cardinal Seán O’Malley as archbishop of Boston on Monday and named the bishop of Providence, Rhode Island, Richard Henning, to replace him as leader of one of the most important Catholic archdioceses in the United States.
The Vatican announcement didn’t mention O’Malley’s other main role as the pope’s main adviser on fighting clergy sexual abuse as head of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, suggesting he would remain in that capacity until a new commission leader is named.
St. John Paul II had tapped O’Malley to take over in Boston in 2003 at the height of the clergy sexual abuse scandal that had exploded there following an investigation by The Boston Globe newspaper. Revelations of years of abuse and coverups by the church led to the downfall of then-archbishop Cardinal Bernard Law, who resigned in disgrace in December 2002.
“When I arrived it was a time of great crisis and of great pain because of the terrible scourge of sexual abuse,” O’Malley said at a news conference as he reflected on all changes the church has seen during his 40 years as a bishop. “But despite all the challenges we’ve had I’m full of hope.”
At age 80, O’Malley is five years beyond the normal retirement age for bishops. His 59-year-old successor, Henning, from Rockville Centre, Long Island, has been bishop of Providence since last year.
In terms of clergy abuse, the torch in Boston is being passed from a man whose contemporaries were the accused to one whose peers were the victims.
“When these crimes and sins were committed, I was also a child. I’m grateful to God that I was not affected by it personally, but people in my generation were,” Henning said at the news conference. “Those survivors, they deserve a listening heart. In some ways they have as much to proclaim to us about the gospel as we do to them.”
O’Malley called the arrival of a new archbishop “a time of renewal and hope” and described Henning as “someone who transmits hope to restless hearts.”
The Archdiocese of Boston is the fourth largest archdiocese in the U.S., serving more than 1.8 million Roman Catholics. It had operating expenses of more than $350 million in fiscal 2023, and its schools serve more than 46,000 students.
O’Malley will be remembered for his advocacy and support for families experiencing homelessness and victims of human trafficking, as well as his leadership in the fight against climate change, Gov. Maura Healey said in a statement. “I greatly admire his deep faith and his empathy and compassion for all,” Healey said.
Henning said he was “deeply shocked and surprised” that he was chosen.
“I am very well aware that I have a lot to learn,” Henning said. “My first job, really, is just to be listener.”
Francis has long expressed his esteem for O’Malley and selected him as a founding member of his core cardinal advisers, known as the C9. O’Malley advised Francis not only on child protection issues, but also helped design the reform of the Vatican bureaucracy.
O’Malley’s relations with Francis haven’t always been easy. In 2018, he issued a blistering rebuke after the pope dismissed claims by survivors of Chile’s most notorious abuser. O’Malley’s harsh tone was a wakeup call for Francis, who eventually apologized after commissioning an investigation into the Chilean scandal.
More recently, O’Malley’s commission flagged “serious problems” in the Vatican’s handling of allegations against an ex-Jesuit artist, the Rev. Marko Rupnik, prompting Francis to order the case reopened.
Born in Ohio and ordained as a priest of the Order of Friars Minor Capuchin in 1970, O’Malley came to Massachusetts in 1992 to serve as the bishop of Fall River, a diocese scandalized by a priest convicted of molesting children. O’Malley was tasked with settling abuse claims.
The experience proved useful in 2003, when, after spending time as Bishop of the Diocese of Palm Beach in Florida, he was appointed by Pope John Paul II as archbishop of Boston. Once again, he took over a district shaken by sexual abuse — this time a much higher-profile crisis involving dozens of priests.
David Clohessy, former national director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, or SNAP, criticized O’Malley for “a masterful job with his public relations but a terribly disappointing job with the church’s on-going abuse and cover up scandal.”
“He’s carefully crafted the impression of a ’reformer, while refusing to take some of the most simple and proven steps toward warning parents, parishioners and the public about potentially threatening clerics,” Clohessy said in a statement.
Henning likely will bring more of the same, said Mitchell Garabedian, an attorney who has represented abuse victims for decades.
“Bishop Henning has not been a strong voice for victims of clergy abuse by any means. He has not been a person who practices transparency concerning clergy sexual abuse. And he has not done any substantive work that would help protect children and help clergy sex abuse survivors to heal,” he said.
Robert Hoatson, co-founder of Road to Recovery, which helps survivors of clergy abuse, described Henning as the “same old, same old” type of bishop who talks about the infallibility of God instead of accountability for perpetrators.
“Guess what, Bishop Henning? No one has ever seen God. But victims have seen bishops running away and covering up. Victims see bishops not taking care of them,” said Hoatson, a clergy abuse survivor himself, as well as a former priest.
But O’Malley was praised by others, including Jennifer Wortham, a research associate at the Human Flourishing Program at Harvard University. Wortham, whose brothers were abused by a priest as children, said she met Pope Francis in 2016 and O’Malley in 2018 and found their concern to be genuine.
“As a sister of survivors of clergy abuse, it was very encouraging for me to hear and to know that the church was so committed to trying to help those that had been harmed with these tragic incidents,” she said.
In 2021, Wortham led a global symposium called “Faith and Flourishing: Strategies for Preventing and Healing Child Sexual Abuse” that was sponsored by the commission O’Malley leads. She said the Roman Catholic Church’s early response was so focused on prevention that leaders failed to focus enough on the victims’ suffering and on their well being.
“One of the challenges the church grappled with is just not really understanding the extent of damage that’s done to victims and families,” she said.
In a brief interview, Henning said he plans to continue what he considers O’Malley’s successful work.
“Obviously, I have work to do in terms of getting to know survivors here in the archdiocese and understanding the current environment,” Henning said. “I do know already that the archdiocese commits itself pretty passionately to the protection of young people in care. I consider that a lifelong passion of my own, so I look forward to understanding and continuing that legacy.”
Kevin Mochen, a parishioner who attended mass at Bethany Chapel in Braintree on Monday, said he expects O’Malley to continue working on behalf of abuse victims. He credited O’Malley with taking over a troubled archdiocese and getting it back on course.
“O’Malley came in and kind of put the diocese back on an even keel. And so that’s his legacy I would think,” Mochen said.
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Whittle reported from Portland, Maine. Ramer reported from Concord, New Hampshire. David Sharp in Portland, Maine, and Nicole Winfield at the Vatican also contributed.
