{"id":128223,"date":"2026-02-09T23:55:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-09T23:55:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/128223\/"},"modified":"2026-02-09T23:55:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-09T23:55:07","slug":"nyc-mayor-zohran-mamdani-a-no-show-at-installation-of-archbishop-ronald-hicks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/128223\/","title":{"rendered":"NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani a no-show at installation of Archbishop Ronald Hicks"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mayor Zohran Mamdani committed a cardinal sin last week by dissing millions of\u00a0area Catholics as\u00a0the first city mayor in nearly 100 years \u2014 and possibly ever \u2014 to skip the local archbishop\u2019s installation.<\/p>\n

Ronald Hicks, 58, on Friday became the 11th archbishop of the New York<\/a> Archdiocese since 1850, accepting the reins of power from Cardinal Timothy Dolan at St. Patrick\u2019s Cathedral in a packed historic ceremony steeped in ritual.<\/p>\n

One of the event\u2019s traditions \u2014 dating back to at least 1939, when then-New York City Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia attended the installation of famous top clergyman Francis Spellman \u2014 had been the attendance of the Big Apple\u2019s sitting mayor.<\/p>\n

At least until this year, when Mamdani decided he had better things to do than help honor the new leader of one of the largest groups of Catholics in the country \u2014 including hundreds of thousands of his own constituents.<\/p>\n

Mamdani decided he had better things to do than help honor the new leader of one of the largest groups of Catholics in the country. Erik Pendzich\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n

Ronald Hicks, 58, on Friday became the 11th archbishop of the New York Archdiocese since 1850. Derek French\/SOPA Images\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n

Hizzoner \u2014 who in the past week put out a tweet marking World Hijab Day and suggested at the annual interfaith prayer breakfast that the US should use the Prophet Muhammed\u2019s example on immigration \u2014 skipped out on the ceremony altogether, marking the occasion with nothing more than a tepid post on X.<\/p>\n

\u201cCongratulations to Archbishop Ronald Hicks on today\u2019s installment and welcome to New York City,\u201d Mamdani wrote Friday afternoon.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know that Archbishop Hicks and I share a deep and abiding commitment to the dignity of every human being and look forward to working together to create a more just and compassionate city where every New Yorker can thrive.\u201d<\/p>\n

City Hall declined to comment after several outreach attempts by The Post both Friday and Monday about his conspicuous absence from the ceremony, which started at 2 p.m. <\/p>\n

When another reporter asked City Hall about the glaring misstep, a Mamdani rep replied, \u201cThe mayor didn\u2019t go but he tweeted about it\u201d \u2014 as if taking a few seconds to post something on X absolved him of what critics call a thumb in the eye of Catholics everywhere.<\/p>\n

\u201cMamdani has been in office for just over a month, and already he is signaling to Catholics that they are not welcome,\u201d fumed New York\u2019s Catholic League in a statement.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe mayor of New York City traditionally attends the installation of the new archbishop of New York, but Mamdani \u2014 who was invited \u2014 ghosted the event,\u201d it said. <\/p>\n

The mayor\u2019s public schedule for that day only listed the prayer breakfast at 10 a.m., followed by a winter weather press conference at 4 p.m. via REUTERS<\/p>\n

\u201cThe installation began a few hours after the Interfaith Breakfast at the New York Public Library; it is a short walk up Fifth Avenue to St. Patrick\u2019s Cathedral,\u201d the league said, referring to an event Mamdani made time for hours earlier.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe could easily have been there. Instead, he attended to business as usual.\u201d<\/p>\n

The mayor\u2019s public schedule for that day only listed the prayer breakfast at 10 a.m., followed by a winter weather press conference at 4 p.m.<\/p>\n

Gov. Kathy Hochul, who is Catholic, was in Syracuse formally accepting the nomination<\/a> for another term at the Democratic convention at the time of the ceremony and was unable to attend.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\tStart your day with all you need to know\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tMorning Report delivers the latest news, videos, photos and more.\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\tThanks for signing up!\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Bill Cunningham, former communications director and top adviser to former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who attended the installation ceremony for Dolan in 2009, told The Post he believes it was a \u201cmistake\u201d for Mamdani not to show up.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a missed opportunity for the mayor to show he wants to serve all the segments of the city,\u201d Cunningham said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are certain\u00a0institutions the mayor of New York\u00a0 might want to take note of. One of them is the Catholic\u00a0Church,\u201d he said, noting that Catholics pay attention to how the church and its institutions are treated.<\/p>\n

The naming of a new archbishop has been an event that has historically transcended a mayor\u2019s own faith.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a missed opportunity for the mayor to show he wants to serve all the segments of the city,\u201d Cunningham said. AP<\/p>\n

Bloomberg is Jewish, as was late former\u00a0Mayor Ed Koch \u2014 and both attended New York archbishop installations during their respective tenures.\u00a0Then Mayor-Koch was present for the ceremony of Cardinal John O\u2019Connor in 1984.<\/p>\n

Former Mayor Rudy Giuliani, a Catholic, was at St. Patrick\u2019s for the installation of Cardinal Edward Egan in 2000.<\/p>\n

Giuliani\u2019s ex-spokesman for his 1993 campaign, Ken Frydman, took a dim view of the current mayor sitting out the event.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought Mamdani only disdains Jews who like Israel,\u201d Frydman told The Post. \u201cTurns out, he also disdains Italian, Irish and other Catholic New Yorkers.\u201d<\/p>\n

The New York Archdiocese, which includes Manhattan, The Bronx and Staten Island and some counties north of the city, is home to an estimated 2.5 million Catholics.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mayor Zohran Mamdani committed a cardinal sin last week by dissing millions of\u00a0area Catholics as\u00a0the first city mayor…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":128224,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[6300,4840,1442,57,9,24,56,63,65,64,27742,58,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-128223","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-city","8":"tag-catholic","9":"tag-catholic-church","10":"tag-mayors","11":"tag-metro","12":"tag-new-york","13":"tag-new-york-city","14":"tag-ny","15":"tag-nyc","16":"tag-nyc-headlines","17":"tag-nyc-news","18":"tag-st-patricks-cathedral","19":"tag-us-news","20":"tag-zohran-mamdani"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128223","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=128223"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128223\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/128224"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=128223"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=128223"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=128223"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}