The President and Trustees of Emmanuel College are honored to announce that Boston Archbishop Richard G. Henning will be the celebrant of the College’s Baccalaureate Mass on Friday, May 9, 2025.
Appointed by Pope Francis, Archbishop Henning was formally installed on October 31, 2024. He is the 10th bishop and seventh archbishop of Boston.
Archbishop Henning previously served as Bishop of Providence, Rhode Island. He has been active in the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, serving as Chair of the Subcommittee for the Translation of the Sacred Scriptures; additionally, he has served on the USCCB’s Doctrine Committee and Subcommittee for the Church in Latin America.
We are deeply grateful to Archbishop Henning for leading us in worship at this year’s Baccalaureate Mass, and for joining our community in giving thanks for, and asking blessings upon, the Emmanuel College Class of 2025.
- Friday, May 9, 2025, at 2:00 p.m.
- Location: Commencement Tent
- All students and their guests, regardless of religious affiliation, are invited.
- Graduates will dress in their regalia – hoods and caps will not be worn during Mass.
- Graduates are welcome to sit with their families and friends during Mass.
Emmanuel faculty will process in their full academic attire into Mass, which is a celebration of and thanksgiving for lives dedicated to learning and wisdom.
The baccalaureate service derives from the medieval European custom of presenting the candidates for the degree of Bachelor (bacca) with laurels (lauri) of sermonic oration. It is believed to have originated at the University of Oxford in 1432 when each bachelor was required to deliver a sermon in Latin as part of academic requirements. Since the earliest universities in America were founded primarily to educate ministers, the British practice of the baccalaureate service was continued.
