{"id":74621,"date":"2025-12-18T17:59:04","date_gmt":"2025-12-18T17:59:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/74621\/"},"modified":"2025-12-18T17:59:04","modified_gmt":"2025-12-18T17:59:04","slug":"pope-leo-xiv-taps-illinois-bishop-to-lead-new-yorks-archdiocese","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/74621\/","title":{"rendered":"Pope Leo XIV taps Illinois bishop to lead New York’s archdiocese"},"content":{"rendered":"

Pope Leo XIV pictured in May in St Peter’s square in the Vatican. On Thursday, the U.S. born pontiff accepted the resignation of New York’s archbishop and appointed Ronald Hicks, formerly bishop of Joliet in the pope’s native Illinois, as his successor to lead one of America’s largest Catholic diocese’s. File Photo by Stefano Spaziani\/UPI | License Photo<\/a><\/p>\n

Dec. 18 (UPI) — Pope Leo XIV named Bishop Ronald A. Hicks of Joliet, Ill., as New York’s new archbishop, ending Cardinal Timothy Dolan<\/a>‘s 16-year tenure.<\/p>\n

On Thursday, the U.S.-born pope accepted Dolan’s<\/a> resignation as archbishop of New York and appointed Ronald Hicks as his successor to lead one of America’s largest Catholic dioceses.\n<\/p>\n

“All I want to do is God’s will, and however God moves me to be a leader in New York, I want to follow that and just give all of my mind, heart and soul,” he told Vatican News<\/a> in an interview.<\/p>\n

Hicks led the Joliet Diocese since 2020 and previously served as Auxiliary Bishop and vicar general of Chicago under Cardinal Blase Cupich.\n<\/p>\n

“Archbishop Hicks is a holy man with a heart for Jesus<\/a> and the People of God. He will embrace the diversity of his new archdiocese and be an adept administrator,” Cupich wrote on social<\/a> media.<\/p>\n

Hicks’ personality “is different from Dolan’s,” according to author Christopher White<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“I’m just very grateful to Pope Leo, and I want to say it’s been my joy and honor serving both Chicago and Joliet. And I’m ready, with the help of God, to make this next step into New York,” Hicks continued.\n<\/p>\n

He was appointed to his new role by Pope Leo, who hasn’t shied away from taking public positions on<\/a> often perceivably controversial topics<\/a>, including LGBTQ+ rights issues<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Hicks “won’t be shy, and at the same time he will also bring a seriousness and willingness to learn that’s likely to help him on a local level that will be different from Dolan’s larger-than-life persona,” White told NPR<\/a>.<\/p>\n

According to Hicks, he grew up in the Illinois suburb right next to the future pope about 14 blocks away from each other.<\/p>\n

“And like Pope Leo, I’m looking for a Church that brings God’s light to the world, His peace, His healing, His love,” said New York’s new Catholic leader.<\/p>\n

Christopher Hale, a Democratic activist and pope enthusiast, commented that Dolan “did plenty of good in New York. But progressives are relieved today because the era of these photo-ops is ending.”<\/p>\n

“The next Archbishop of New York won’t look America in the eye and claim Donald Trump<\/a> ‘takes his faith very seriously,'” Hale posted on<\/a> X.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t Former President Joe Biden presents<\/a> the Presidential Citizens Medal to Liz Cheney during a ceremony in the East Room of the White House in Washington, on January 2, 2025. The Presidential Citizens Medal is bestowed to individuals who have performed exemplary deeds or services. Photo by Will Oliver\/UPI | License Photo<\/a>\t\t \t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Pope Leo XIV pictured in May in St Peter’s square in the Vatican. On Thursday, the U.S. born…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":74622,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[37617,153,36886,9,11,10,33997,27,4107],"class_list":{"0":"post-74621","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-christopher-white","9":"tag-donald-trump","10":"tag-jesus","11":"tag-new-york","12":"tag-new-york-headlines","13":"tag-new-york-news","14":"tag-timothy-dolan","15":"tag-top-stories","16":"tag-u-s"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74621","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=74621"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74621\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/74622"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=74621"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=74621"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=74621"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}