Bishop Richard G. Henning was born in Rockville Centre, New York, in 1964 to Richard and Maureen Henning, the first of five siblings. He grew up in Valley Stream, a parishioner of Holy Name of Mary Parish, where he also attended its grammar school.

 

He attended Chaminade High School in Mineola, New York, and credits the Marianists as a significant influence in his faith life and commitment to learning. He received a B.A. and M.A. in history from St. John’s University, Queens, New York. He received his training for the priesthood at the Seminary of the Immaculate Conception in Huntington, New York. In addition, he has a Doctorate in Sacred Theology, STD, and a DD, Doctor of Divinity.

 

He was ordained in 1992 and served five years as an associate pastor at the Church of St. Peter of Alcantara, Port Washington. He did extensive pastoral work in the large parish school and ministered to the Spanish-speaking, mainly Salvadoran Catholics. In addition to fluency in English and Spanish, Bishop Henning speaks Italian and can read French, Greek, and Hebrew. He earned a Licentiate in Biblical Theology at The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., and a Doctorate from the University of St. Thomas Aquinas in Rome, Italy.

 

After his studies, Bishop Henning joined the faculty of the Seminary of the Immaculate Conception in Huntington, where he taught scripture for more than ten years. In 2012, as part of the partnership for seminary formation among the Dioceses of Rockville Centre, Brooklyn, and the Archdiocese of New York, then Rev. Msgr. Henning was appointed to lead the Seminary of the Immaculate Conception through its transition to the largest retreat house in the Northeast. Bishop Barres appointed Bishop Henning, the Episcopal Vicar, for the Central Vicariate of the Diocese of Rockville Centre in September 2017. He was appointed an auxiliary bishop of the Diocese of Rockville Center in June 2018. Since June 2021, Bishop Henning has also served as the Vicar for Clergy and Vicar for Pastoral Planning.

 

On Wednesday, Nov. 23, 2022, the day before Thanksgiving, the faithful of the diocese got their first glimpse of the shepherd who will eventually succeed the eighth Bishop of Providence, Bishop Thomas J. Tobin, D.D., when the Holy Father, Pope Francis, appointed Most Rev. Richard G. Henning, S.T.D, Coadjutor Bishop of Providence with the right of succession.

 

On May 1, 2023, the Coadjutor by the Apostolic delegate, on behalf of Pope Francis, accepted the resignation of Bishop Tobin, and the ninth Bishop of Providence, Richard G Henning, will assume his duties as the Head of The Roman Catholic Diocese in Rhode Island.