As many Bostonians are now very well aware, His Eminence, the beloved Archbishop Seán Patrick Cardinal O’Malley is retiring from the jurisdiction of the Episcopacy. He will be succeeded by the Bishop-elect, Richard G. Henning, an American prelate and the Bishop of the Diocese of Providence in Rhode Island.
He will take the throne on the 31st of October, the Vigil of All Saints. These changes of prelature leadership in the Church certainly mark interesting times for Catholics and may beg the question in the minds of many: How does one become a bishop?
The grand office of the Episcopacy is not something that the Catholic Church takes lightly and serious deliberation and scrutiny are taken in the appointment of a man to the diocese which never takes place without the explicit approval of the Pope. To answer the question at hand we first must look at how one becomes a priest.
While the Church has approximately 5,000 bishops, a select number given the total population of the Church, we have a considerable 400,000 priests worldwide. Knowing this, it is relatively easy to make the claim that most people, if they wanted to, could become a Catholic Priest assuming they are a man and unmarried (usually).
The process of becoming a priest today involves anywhere between seven and ten years of seminary education in which one would take on an in-depth study of philosophy and theology and eventually be ordained a deacon along the path to presbyteral ordination.
After one is ordained, assuming we’re talking about Diocesan Priests, a priest gets assigned to a parish either as an assistant priest or a parochial vicar for a certain number of years until a permanent assignment is found at a church where one becomes a pastor.
The selection of bishops is far more rigorous; during one’s career as a priest, the present bishops in a certain area keep note of who pious, educated, and exemplary priests are in order to have a suitable successor for a bishop who dies or retires. Unlike becoming a priest, which is an endeavor that one has far more control over, one’s chances of becoming a bishop can only be increased essentially by good behavior.
When an episcopal vacancy occurs the bishops of that specific province give their recommendations to their country’s apostolic Nuncio, an ambassador between the Church in a specific country and the Vatican. The Apostolic Nuncio conducts extensive research on the candidates for the episcopacy before getting the approval from the Pope, or likely a high ranking Vatican official with the power to approve the same action.
While it is not mandatory that the candidate for episcopal ordination or appointment to a diocese be a diocesan priest, it is certainly the most common. One notable exception is our current and aforementioned archbishop, Cardinal O’Malley who is part of the order of Franciscan Friars. All this said, it is of no surprise that the Church has for many centuries produced many spectacular models of Christian charity and leadership amongst Her episcopacy due to the level of scrutiny and importance that the process undergoes. It is surely the same of Cardinal O’Malley who we are all saddened to see go, and we hope it will be the same for Bishop Henning when he takes over shortly. Ad Multos Annos!
Born and Raised to Jewish parents in New York City, Kai Breskin is a recent convert to the Catholic Faith. A member of the Boston College class of 2026, he is studying Political Science, Philosophy, and History. His intellectual passions include Christian theology, history, and liturgical study. His hobbies include sailing, playing the piano, and singing, with a specific focus in Gregorian Chant.
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