The morning of Oct. 5 is expected to arrive with brilliant sunshine in Ocean City, Md., as thousands of Catholics in the Diocese of Wilmington descend upon the Roland Powell Convention Center for the Eucharistic Congress.
First up after registration and greetings is the keynote address at 10 a.m. from Archbishop Richard Henning, the soon-to-be archbishop of Boston.
The archbishop-elect, who will soon be leaving the Diocese of Providence, R.I., for the Archdiocese of Boston, has a background in Scripture studies, and that is going to be evident in his talk at the Ocean City convention center, he said in a recent phone interview.
There was a bit of uncertainty about Archbishop-elect Henning’s visit to the Eastern Shore after he was named to succeed Cardinal Sean O’Malley in Boston until the date of his installation was announced. That had to be delayed a few weeks and is scheduled for Oct. 31.
“(The eucharistic congress) is an important commitment,” he said. “I wouldn’t have canceled unless there was a conflict with the installation.”
He is looking forward to spending the day in Ocean City and said he hopes to be able to stay to concelebrate the closing Mass in the afternoon.
“It’s going to be a nice experience, an uplifting one, for the Diocese of Wilmington,” he said. “It will not be about what I say or what anyone else says. The real piece in here is people gathered together and really place their trust in the Lord Jesus.”
