{"id":75018,"date":"2025-12-18T23:56:08","date_gmt":"2025-12-18T23:56:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/75018\/"},"modified":"2025-12-18T23:56:08","modified_gmt":"2025-12-18T23:56:08","slug":"those-who-know-joliet-bishop-ronald-hicks-unsurprised-by-elevation-to-new-york-cardinal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/75018\/","title":{"rendered":"Those who know Joliet Bishop Ronald Hicks unsurprised by elevation to New York cardinal"},"content":{"rendered":"

New York’s new archbishop<\/a> was first an affable Chicagoan, and those who knew him during his life in the south suburbs are not surprised by Pope Leo XIV’s decision to elevate him.<\/p>\n

“I’m the type who, if we’re in the lunch line, I stick out my hand. I say, hi, I’m Ron Hicks, uh, who are you? And I like getting to know them and collaborating with them. And, uh, I, I, I enjoy people,” Hicks said of himself.<\/p>\n

People who know the 58-year-old seem to agree.<\/p>\n

“Pope Leo has the affability and the listening that Bishop Hicks has. I bet that really endeared Bishop Hicks to Pope Leo,” said Michael Murphy with Loyola University. <\/p>\n

“Lo and behold, he’s now the archbishop of New York,” said Bishop Gerald Kicanas of Tuscon, who once was Hicks’ mentor. <\/p>\n

Kicanas is proud of how far his young mentee has come, from his days in high school to serving as bishop of Joliet.<\/p>\n

“He’s a very bright man. He is a good listener as is Pope Leo. He tries to hear the perspective of people before making a decision, but he’s also a decisionmaker. He’ll make a decision when it has to be made,” he said.<\/p>\n

Hicks also has the blessing of retiring New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan.<\/p>\n

“I’ve gotten to know him, and I already love him and appreciate him and trust him. Is there sadness in my heart? Sure, because I love the Archdiocese of NY, but that sadness is mitigated by the gift that this archbishop already is,” he said. <\/p>\n

Bishop Hicks grew up in South Holland, near Dolton, just 14 blocks from Pope Leo XIV’s childhood home.<\/p>\n

“They played baseball on the same fields. They went swimming in the same pools. They don’t like the same baseball team. That’s hilarious,” Murphy said.<\/p>\n

One big difference, though? Hicks is a Cubs fan.<\/p>\n

But Bishop Hicks seems ready to embrace his new city and a new assignment.<\/p>\n

“What I can guarantee is when I come here is I’m going to give it my all. All of my heart, and I’m really grateful and humbled to be called here,” he said. <\/p>\n

In addition to being a Cubs fan, Bishop Hicks made it known to reporters in New York that he loves deep dish pizza. But he added that he’ll start rooting for New York sports teams and already loves New York pizza a lot.<\/p>\n

\n More from CBS News\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New York’s new archbishop was first an affable Chicagoan, and those who knew him during his life in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":75019,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[4840,7625,9,11,10],"class_list":{"0":"post-75018","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-catholic-church","9":"tag-joliet","10":"tag-new-york","11":"tag-new-york-headlines","12":"tag-new-york-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75018","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=75018"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75018\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/75019"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=75018"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=75018"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=75018"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}