Cardinal Timothy Dolan transferred the reins of power over the New York Archdiocese Friday \u2014 and it started with three knocks on the doors of St. Patrick\u2019s Cathedral.<\/p>\n
New Archbishop Ronald Hicks, 58, showed up about 3 minutes early outside the famed Manhattan cathedral\u2019s massive bronze entry dressed in his traditional red, gold and white vestments for the ceremony in which he officially takes over one of America\u2019s largest collections of Roman Catholics.<\/p>\n
New York Archbishop Ronald Hicks ceremoniously knocks on the front bronze doors of St. Patrick\u2019s Cathedral in Manhattan on Friday before the Mass to install him in his powerful new role. Getty Images<\/p>\n
At 2 p.m., he knocked on one of the cathedral\u2019s doors three times with a small bronze-colored hammer and was invited inside by Dolan \u2014 as is church tradition signifying him being welcomed officially into his new role leading the archdiocese.<\/p>\n
Onlookers were thrilled to see the new Archbishop \u2014 the archdiocese\u2019s first since 2009 \u2014 arrive to start leading the flock. <\/p>\n
\u201cHonestly, I\u2019m just a huge fan,\u2019\u2019 said Alex Barnes, 37, one of dozens of onlookers outside the packed cathedral to watch the ceremony from across the street, of Hicks.<\/p>\n
\u201cI love what the guy stands for. I think he\u2019s really going to help people fall back in love with the church, getting back to core Catholic values,\u201d Barnes added.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not very often you get to witness a new archbishop on their first day! I wish I was inside but this is still better than watching at home.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hicks, who was born just blocks from Pope Leo XIV in Ill., is replacing the charismatic larger-than-life Dolan, who took the reins of the archdiocese in 2009.<\/p>\n
The new archbishop, who spent five years administering to the poor and overseeing an orphanage in El Salvador, is fluent in Spanish, and part of Friday\u2019s Mass was expected to be said in Spanish.<\/p>\n
The new archbishop showed up several minutes early outside the cathedral. Andrew H. Walker\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n
Cardinal Timothy Dolan hands over the reins of the archdiocese to Hicks on Friday. POOL\/AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n
Hicks greets congregants. AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n
The ceremony is filled with plenty of religious pomp. Getty Images<\/p>\n
A member of the faithful prays for the new archbishop. AP<\/p>\n
Hicks is heralded by fans outside church. Stephen Lovekin\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n
Dolan received a standing ovation from the crowd, including from Hicks, at the start.<\/p>\n
It also was announced that it was Dolan\u2019s birthday \u2014 he turned 76 on Friday \u2014 and the crowd began signing an impromptu \u201cHappy Birthday.\u201d<\/p>\n
A letter from the pope was then read announcing Hicks\u2019 appointment.<\/p>\n
The archdiocese includes Manhattan, The Bronx and Staten Island as well as parts north of the city \u2014 and with an estimated 2.5 million Catholics, is among the largest in the country.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Cardinal Timothy Dolan transferred the reins of power over the New York Archdiocese Friday \u2014 and it started…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":125548,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[5555,57,9,56,63,65,64,37564,27742,33997,58],"class_list":{"0":"post-125547","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-city","8":"tag-archdiocese-of-new-york","9":"tag-metro","10":"tag-new-york","11":"tag-ny","12":"tag-nyc","13":"tag-nyc-headlines","14":"tag-nyc-news","15":"tag-ronald-hicks","16":"tag-st-patricks-cathedral","17":"tag-timothy-dolan","18":"tag-us-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125547","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=125547"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125547\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/125548"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=125547"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=125547"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=125547"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}