Archbishop Emeritus Timothy Dolan, soon after his retirement from one job, has more public life to live.
Dolan and Reverend A.R. Bernard, of Brooklyn’s Christian Cultural Center, were sworn in as chief chaplains of the NYPD at police headquarters on Wednesday.
What You Need To Know
Cardinal Timothy Dolan stepped down as archbishop of New York after reaching the mandatory retirement age of 75
Rev. A. R. Bernard’s church counts more than 30,000 congregants
The two chief chaplains replace Rabbi Alvin Kass, who died in 2025 and served at the department since 1966
“My duty will be to affirm the life the goodness and light while also standing next to you as you witness and do your best to stop the death the evil and darkness,” Dolan said during the ceremony.
“I believe that spiritual health and moral clarity are not luxuries for policing,” Bernard said. “They are necessities.”
Mayor Zohran Mamdani attended the swearing in and spoke about the burden police officers shoulder.
“The chaplains of the NYPD have held the great responsibility of lifting that burden, of ensuring that no officer should carry the weight of duty, alone,” he said.
Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said the two leaders shaped the moral and religious landscape of the city.
“They are not changing who they are,” she said. “They are choosing to bind their leadership to this institution alongside the officers who protect this city.”
As chief chaplains, Dolan and Bernard will oversee 11 chaplains at the NYPD. Both men are stepping into the role after developing prominent and influential public lives, weighing in on government policy and maintaining deep ties to political leaders.
“This is New York City, so they’re men — humble men, you can see — who’ve had tremendous position in their churches and here they are serving the largest police department and the most sophisticated police department in the world,” George Grasso, a retired NYPD official who attended the ceremony, told NY1.
Grasso, a retired NYPD official, recalled how he leaned on the chaplains after the 9/11 terror attacks.
“I was with them. We comforted each other and our families when we were figuring out what we were going to do in dealing with the greatest catastrophe we ever saw,” he said.
Recently, Dolan told a Catholic news outlet that he was “ticked off” that Mamdani never invited him to the inauguration or showed up to the installation of the new archbishop. But during the ceremony on Wednesday, Dolan and Mamdani had a friendly moment, where the prelate leaned in close to the mayor and offered him some words.