{"id":131535,"date":"2026-02-12T18:32:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-12T18:32:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/131535\/"},"modified":"2026-02-12T18:32:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-12T18:32:09","slug":"after-skipping-installation-new-york-mayor-meets-archbishop-hicks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/131535\/","title":{"rendered":"After skipping installation, New York mayor meets Archbishop Hicks"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mayor Zohran Mamdani broke a long-standing New York tradition when he missed the Feb. 6 installation Mass<\/a> for Archbishop Ronald Hicks at St. Patrick\u2019s Cathedral and met with the archbishop four days later.<\/p>\n

Joseph Zwilling, director of communications for the Archdiocese of New York, told EWTN News that \u201cthe mayor and the archbishop were together at a [New York Police Department] event\u201d Feb. 10 and \u201cthen spoke by phone later in the day.\u201d<\/p>\n

The archdiocese confirmed that Mamdani was invited to the installation Mass. Prior to Hicks\u2019 installation, a sitting mayor was present for at least the past five archbishop installations, which were in 2009, 2000, 1984, 1968, and 1939. Hicks replaced Cardinal Timothy Dolan following his retirement.<\/p>\n

In Mamdani\u2019s absence, Helen Arteaga, deputy mayor for Health and Human Services, attended the Feb. 6 installation Mass. Prior to the meeting and phone call, Mamdani congratulated Hicks on social media. <\/p>\n

\u201cCongratulations to Archbishop Ronald Hicks on today\u2019s installment and welcome to New York City,\u201d Mamdani said in a post on X<\/a>. \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

The mayor\u2019s press office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n

Mamdani became the first Muslim and first democratic-socialist<\/a> mayor of the city on Jan. 1.<\/p>\n

Bill Donohue, president of the Catholic League, a Catholic advocacy group, criticized Mamdani for missing the Mass, saying in a statement<\/a> that Mamdani \u201cghosted the event.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHe could easily have been there,\u201d Donohue said. \u201cInstead, he attended to business as usual.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOne in 3 New Yorkers are Catholic, making them the largest faith community in the city,\u201d he added. \u201cMamdani\u2019s professed interest in diversity and inclusion obviously hits a brick wall when it comes to Catholics. He wants nothing to do with them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Donohue also criticized some of Mamdani\u2019s policy positions, which he said includes \u201crabid support for abortion, gay marriage, and transgenderism (including the child abuse inherent in sex-reassignment surgery for minors).\u201d<\/p>\n

During his campaign, Mamdani vowed<\/a> to increase public funding for abortion, hormone therapy drugs, and surgeries designed to make a person appear like the opposite sex.<\/p>\n

Mamdani defeated two candidates<\/a> with nearly 51% of the vote in the November 2025 election. His plans include free buses, city-owned grocery stores, no-cost child care, raising the minimum wage to $30 per hour, and freezing the rent for people in rent-stabilized apartments.<\/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 Donohue said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mayor Zohran Mamdani broke a long-standing New York tradition when he missed the Feb. 6 installation Mass for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":131536,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[5555,3734,9,24,55,54,56,87],"class_list":["post-131535","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-archdiocese-of-new-york","tag-catholic-news","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-city-headlines","tag-new-york-city-news","tag-ny","tag-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131535","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=131535"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131535\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/131536"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=131535"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=131535"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=131535"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}