AUGUSTA – The Maine House and Senate formally honored Bishop Joseph Gerry on Tuesday as he retires as spiritual leader of Maine’s Roman Catholics.

Lawmakers applauded Gerry after passing an item congratulating him and offering their best wishes as Gerry returns to the St. Anselm monastery in Manchester, N.H., where he spent most of his adult life as a Benedictine monk.

Gerry, who has headed the statewide diocese since 1989, is being succeeded by an auxiliary bishop from the Boston archdiocese, Richard Malone. He will be installed as bishop of the Diocese of Portland on March 31.