This week, The Catholic Register shifts its editorial from opinion to obituary to honour the soul, spirit and devotion to faith of the late Fred Henry, Bishop Emeritus of Calgary. In place of passing comment on the passing moments of the day, we stand aside to meditate on the legacy of a remarkable Catholic leader who, as our writer Anna Farrow notes, was partisan only in his passion for Holy Mother Church and her people.
Bishop Frederick Bernard Henry fulsomely lived out his episcopal motto, Dabo Vobis Pastores, a quote from the prophet Jeremiah which translates, “I will give you pastors.”
A robust defender of the faith who provided clear and unequivocal teaching, he was fiercely protective of his flock, managing to maintain a pastoral touch.
Henry, Bishop of Calgary from 1998 to 2017 and buried from St. Mary’s Cathedral on Dec. 10, has been likened to an old-school bishop.
Amanda Achtman, pro-life advocate, is a native Calgarian whose parents were publishers of the diocesan magazine The Carillon.
She delighted when Henry would visit her childhood home, joining her family, including her Polish Jewish, atheist grandfather, at the supper table.
“My grandfather would save all his best jokes to tell the Bishop,” Achtman told The Catholic Register.
Achtman, who continued to seek Henry’s counsel as she grew into adulthood and developed her pro-life work, draws a parallel between Henry and another of her heroes, Blessed Cardinal Clemens von Galen.
Von Galen was bishop of Münster, Germany during World War II and was placed under house arrest after a series of 1941 sermons that called out the Nazi practice of euthanasia and mistreatment of religious communities.
Achtman says that when Henry spoke to the media or published pieces in the newspapers, he modeled an effective means of public engagement.
“To me this was in good continuity with other courageous bishops throughout history. I think, like Blessed von Galen, Bishop Henry will be vindicated for the courage that he showed. That's the kind of public witness that we all need amid the cultural crisis of our time,” said Achtman.
“Bishop Henry didn't hesitate to speak the truth in the public square, and that might come across as polemical, but only for the audacity that he brought to the issues of the day from a Christian standpoint.”
The secular press invariably portrayed Henry as a conservative culture warrior, citing his stance on everything from the HPV vaccine to euthanasia to residential schools. It was easier to cast him in that mould than to understand that he was not politically partisan, but rather a passionate partisan for his Church and his people.
From his many tussles with former Alberta Premier Ralph Klein to his weighing in on labor disputes, Henry demonstrated a vigorous engagement with public life that went beyond anodyne statements and photo opportunities.
His decision in 2000 to advise then media magnate Conrad Black to negotiate with striking workers five months into the Calgary Herald strike, a decision that would gain him the titles of “useful idiot” and “jumped-up little twerp” by Black, is reminiscent of the actions of another outspoken bishop from the ‘40s, Montreal Archbishop Joseph Charbonneau.
Having authored a 1976 biography of Maurice Duplessis, the Quebec premier who sought to squash the 1949 Asbestos strike, Black shouldn’t have been surprised by the push-back he received from Henry. He would have known well the words Charbonneau delivered in a mid-strike sermon at Notre-Dame Basilica: “When there is a conspiracy to crush the working class, it’s the Church’s duty to intervene. We value people more than capital.”
“Red Freddy,” a moniker applied by Ted Byfield during the Calgary Herald strike, was a man of both heat and light.
Mary Ann Donaleshen, worked at the Calgary Diocese for all the 19 years that Bishop Henry was in situ, and says that her abiding memory of her former boss was his ability to listen.
“I've never in my life met anyone who was as good of a listener as Bishop Henry. I wasn't cut off. He spoke clearly. He listened, he reflected, and then he would give you his answer or his pastoral words to you to help you along.”
“He cared deeply about his people, and he loved his priests. I can't say that strongly enough. He really had their back. He recognized that our priests came from all over the world, from different cultures. He was able to respect their cultures, but he found ways to get them to work together.”
Bishop William McGrattan, CCCB President, succeeded Henry as bishop of Calgary in 2018. McGrattan told the Register that Bishop Henry played a pivotal role in his own decision to seek priestly ordination.
“It goes back to the first time that I approached and presented myself to the seminary. The person in charge of the seminary at the time was Fr. Henry. At the time, I was simply considering the possibility of a vocation. But after probably a good half an hour of conversation, he looked at me and just simply said to me, ‘We'll see you in September.’ I took that as the voice of the Church.”
Diane Jackman, executive assistant to Bishop Henry for 19 years as well, says that Henry brought a sense of humor to the oftentimes sober work of the diocesan office.
“Sometimes,” said Jackman, “you'd be talking about something serious. He would say, ‘Well, let's see how we're going to handle this now. No one's dead, right?’”
Jackman also recalls that despite his health challenges, Henry persisted with an unrelenting schedule.
“He had that terrible arthritis, a lot of times he would be in tremendous pain, and he never took it out on anyone and never really complained.”
Henry retired early in 2017 due to the debilitating effects of ankylosing spondylitis (AS), a form of arthritis that attacks multiple body functions.
It was the AS that would rob Henry of his ability to play the golf game he loved.
In an email to friends beginning an Easter 2024 project he entitled, Teach Me How To Pray, Henry wrote, “when I retired, I had formulated three goals or priorities for the next phase of my life: improve my golf game; continue to accept invitations to give with retreats and parish missions; and work on my prayer life.”
Henry said that the first two, “have largely been taken care of as health issues re breathing and mobility have made both obsolete.”
The last months of his life were thereby devoted to the third priority, his prayer life. In a 50-day project, he shared a daily email that contained prayers and his reflections on prayer.
McGrattan says that the life and ministry of Bishop Henry is significant not just for the church but for Canadian society.
“His influence goes beyond the Diocese of Calgary. People have been sending condolences and prayers from right across the country. They saw him as one who spoke the truth. He saw that it was the responsibility of the church on many social and moral issues to speak both with a sense of truth, but also charity and drawing people to a higher sense of our calling as human beings and as a society.”
It is this higher call that remains with Achtman. Henry both expected great things of people and gave them the confidence to live up to those expectations.
“I always had the sense whenever I was with Bishop Henry that he took me deeply seriously.”
McGrattan says that when Henry offered correction to priests or laity, as McGrattan confirmed he did, “it was always done with a great sense of charity, always respecting the individual, but also making sure that he was speaking what he believed to be the truth.”
As those condolences pour in, McGrattan says that “it's very salutary when we hear from the faithful the good things that either priests, or in this case a bishop, has done in terms of impacting the life and the faith of people.”
“I hope and pray that the priests can receive that from the faithful and they themselves will be inspired to carry on in that same example of selfless service, sacrifice and ministry.”