Rev. Henry P. Zinno, Jr. was born in Providence, RI and is the son of the late Henry and Rita (Moon) Zinno.  He is a graduate of Our Lady of Providence Seminary High School and Our Lady of Providence College Seminary.  He received his Bachelor Degree in Philosophy from Stonehill College in 1977 and his Bachelor and Masters Degrees in Theology and his Masters Degree in Moral and Religious Sciences with a concentration in Liturgy from the University of Louvain in Belgium in 1981.  

He was ordained a priest on June 12, 1982 at the Cathedral of Sts. Peter and Paul in Providence, RI by Bishop Louis Gelineau.  He served as Assistant Pastor at St. Philip Parish in Greenville, RI from 1982 to 1987, Assistant Pastor at Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Parish in Bristol, RI from 1987 to 1997, and Chaplain at Roger Williams University from 1988 to 1995 while he was at Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Parish.

In 1997, he was appointed Pastor of Holy Ghost Church in North Tiverton, RI, a position he held until 2002 at which time he was appointed Pastor of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Parish in Bristol, RI, a position that he still holds.  He has also been serving as Administrator of St. Elizabeth Parish in Bristol, RI due to the untimely death of its Pastor.  He has also had numerous other assignments and responsibilities within the Roman Catholic Diocese of Providence.

Fr. Zinno is an accomplished cook, using his talents to raise money for his various parishes and, most especially, Our Lady of Mt. Carmel School.  He is famous for his pasta sauce which he jars and sells during the annual Feast of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel that takes place in July.  The recipe for his sauce is the best kept secret in town!  During the COVID-19 pandemic, he did a series of very successful live cooking shows on Facebook to boost everyone’s spirits.

He has done two sabbaticals in Rome studying theology at the Pontifical North American College in Vatican City, in 1994 and 2019.  As a seminarian, he worked as a missionary in Tanzania, Africa.

Fr Zinno considers his greatest accomplishment to be organizing teen mission trips to the Mustard Seed Communities of Nicaragua and Jamaica, residences for orphans, children, youth, and adults with multiple challenges, handicaps, and disabilities. More than 250 young people and their chaperones have participated in these mission trips since 2011 and he plans to have more of these trips once the world opens from the pandemic.

He was selected as the Chief Marshal of the 119th Feast Of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel, which coincided with the 100th Anniversary of the parish.  It is the highest honor that a parishioner of Mt. Carmel can receive.

Fr Zinno has two sisters and their husbands: Barbara and Paul Keenan of Newport RI and Joan and Rick Gregory of Salt Lake City, Utah, 8 nephews and one niece.

In 2022, he will celebrate the 40th anniversary of his ordination to the priesthood.