Leo Makes His Pick to Lead NY's Archdiocese

Pope Leo XIV on Thursday made his most important US appointment yet, naming a fellow Chicagoan as the next archbishop of New York to lead one of the biggest archdioceses as it navigates relations with the Trump administration and its immigration crackdown. US Bishop Ronald Hicks, currently bishop of Joliet, Illinois, will replace the retiring Cardinal Timothy Dolan, a prominent conservative figure in the US Catholic hierarchy, per the AP. Hicks takes over after Dolan last week finalized a plan to establish a $300 million fund to compensate victims of sexual abuse who'd sued the archdiocese.

Dolan submitted his resignation in February, as required when he turned 75, though the Vatican often waits to make important leadership changes in dioceses if there's lingering abuse litigation or other matters that need to be resolved by the outgoing bishop. The handover represents a significant new chapter for the US Catholic Church, which is forging a new era with the Chicago-born Leo as the first American pope. Leo and the US hierarchy have already shown willingness to challenge the Trump administration on immigration and other issues, and Hicks is seen as very much a Leo-style bishop.

Hicks, 58, grew up in South Holland, Illinois, a short distance from the suburban Chicago childhood home of Leo, the former Robert Prevost. Like Prevost, who spent 20 years as a missionary in Peru, Hicks worked for five years in El Salvador heading a church-run orphanage program that operated in nine Latin American and Caribbean countries. "Taking a new position as archbishop of New York is an enormous responsibility, but I can honestly say that Bishop Hicks is up to the task," says the Rev. Eusebius Martis, who has known Hicks since the mid-1980s and worked with him at a Chicago archdiocesan seminary.

Hicks served as a Chicago parish priest and dean of training at Mundelein Seminary before Chicago Cardinal Blase Cupich, seen as a progressive, made him vicar general of the archdiocese in 2015. Three years later, Hicks was made an auxiliary bishop, and in 2020 Pope Francis named him bishop of Joliet, serving around 520,000 Catholics. The New York archdiocese is among the largest in the nation, serving 2.5 million Catholics. The gregarious Dolan, meanwhile, who's widely regarded as conservative, has been one of the most high-profile Catholic leaders in the United States and a prominent voice in the city. More here.