{"id":124871,"date":"2026-02-06T06:29:14","date_gmt":"2026-02-06T06:29:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/124871\/"},"modified":"2026-02-06T06:29:14","modified_gmt":"2026-02-06T06:29:14","slug":"new-archbishop-of-new-york-ronald-hicks-to-focus-on-evangelizing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/124871\/","title":{"rendered":"New archbishop of New York Ronald Hicks to focus on evangelizing"},"content":{"rendered":"

The incoming archbishop of New York<\/a> said Thursday that he plans to emphasize the importance of evangelizing as he takes charge of one of the biggest U.S. archdioceses.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow do we be actually be disciples, who do we make disciples?\u201d Ronald Hicks said during a news conference at St. Patrick\u2019s Cathedral, where his installation ceremony will be held Friday. \u201cPeople who have been a part of the church but maybe not so much \u2014 How do we reengage? How do we pass the faith on to the next generation? How do we be a church that is thriving and relevant?\u201d<\/p>\n

Hicks \u2014 who worked for five years in El Salvador heading a church-run orphanage program that operated in nine Latin American and Caribbean countries \u2014 said his message for immigrants emphasizes the church\u2019s teachings on social justice and human dignity. <\/p>\n

\u201cHow do we see each other as brothers and sisters and use that as a foundation for everything else?\u201d he asked. Hicks has requested that the liturgy at his installation also be said in Spanish.<\/p>\n

The change in leadership represents a significant new chapter for the U.S. Catholic Church, which is forging a new era with the Chicago-born Pope Leo XIV as the first American pope. Leo and the U.S. 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<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The current bishop of Joliet, Illinois, Hicks was chosen by Leo in December to replace the retiring Cardinal Timothy Dolan, a prominent conservative figure in the U.S. Catholic hierarchy. Dolan had submitted his resignation in February, as required when he turned 75. <\/p>\n

Hicks\u2019 appointment came shortly after Dolan finalized a plan to establish a $300 million fund to compensate victims<\/a> of sexual abuse who had sued the archdiocese.<\/p>\n

During his homily Friday, Hicks highlighted a vision for the archdiocese based in gratitude and the mission of the church.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou are going to notice that I am going to reference a number of times Pope Leo the 14th,\u201d Hicks said. \u201cI will strive always to be obedient and respectful to him and also collaborate with his vision.\u201d<\/p>\n

The New York archdiocese is among the largest in the nation, serving roughly 2.5 million<\/a> Catholics in Manhattan, the Bronx and Staten Island in New York City, as well as seven counties to the north. <\/p>\n

Hicks said he has not yet spoken with New York\u2019s new mayor, Zohran Mamdani, but said he looks forward to meeting him and getting to know him.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat I\u2019d like to do as archbishop is understand that in politics, in government, there are going to be things that we disagree on, but I\u2019d also like to make sure we pay attention to what are those things we can work on together for the common good,\u201d Hicks said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The incoming archbishop of New York said Thursday that he plans to emphasize the importance of evangelizing as…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":124872,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[4840,153,417,5350,7625,531,9,24,56,63,65,64,5638,7675,37564,48202,33997,421,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-124871","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-city","8":"tag-catholic-church","9":"tag-donald-trump","10":"tag-general-news","11":"tag-illinois","12":"tag-joliet","13":"tag-national","14":"tag-new-york","15":"tag-new-york-city","16":"tag-ny","17":"tag-nyc","18":"tag-nyc-headlines","19":"tag-nyc-news","20":"tag-pope-leo-xiv","21":"tag-religion","22":"tag-ronald-hicks","23":"tag-send-to-apple-news","24":"tag-timothy-dolan","25":"tag-u-s-news","26":"tag-zohran-mamdani"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124871","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=124871"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124871\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/124872"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=124871"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=124871"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=124871"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}