Going to church during the pandemic was a frightening proposition.

Live streaming of Sunday Mass was the safe route, but all the baptisms, first communions, confirmations, weddings, and funerals that brought people together suffered.

You missed all those rites of passage. Celebrating and grieving alone hurt society and did severe psychological harm to youngsters and the elderly, especially.

That’s why I was so impressed with the incoming head of the Boston Archdiocese, Bishop Richard Henning, who brought a calm sense of purpose laced with humor at my nephew’s confirmation as the pandemic finally eased up. It immediately put us all at ease.

As this photo below shows, he met with all of us and shared stories and brought back what’s good about religion. He allowed parents and godfathers and godmothers to show their support and just be examples of how persistence is a path forward.

I can’t recall why we were smiling when my sister-in-law snapped a photo of me beside Bishop Henning, but it doesn’t matter. I left that confirmation feeling as if the world had turned a corner and we all hit that crossroads together in a small church just over the border in Rhode Island.

The pandemic will stay with us all forever. It split us apart and sent everyone inside and, but now it’s all in the past. Bishop Henning saw what was happening that sunny spring day and seized on the moment to urge the students to look at their elders — who weren’t broken by the plague — and keep their heads and keep their faith.

Welcome to Boston Bishop Henning.

Bishop Richard G. Henning, just named the next head of the Archdiocese of Boston, with Herald Executive Editor Joe Dwinell in 2023. (Pam Dwinell photo)