Pope Leo replaces New York’s Cardinal Dolan in shake-up of US Church
· The Straits TimesVATICAN CITY – Pope Leo replaced Cardinal Timothy Dolan as leader of the Catholic Church in New York, the Vatican announced on Dec 18, sidelining a prominent US Church figure in a major shake-up of the country’s Catholic leadership.
Pope Leo, the first US pope, appointed a relatively unknown cleric from Illinois, Bishop Ronald Hicks, to replace Cardinal Dolan as leader of the nation’s second-largest Catholic diocese, home to some 2.8 million Church members.
Cardinal Dolan, the Archbishop of New York since 2009 and a former president of the US Catholic bishops’ conference, offered to resign in February upon turning 75, as required by Church law. Cardinals often serve until 80, the mandatory retirement age.
“Hicks represents not just a new chapter for New York but for the American church as a whole,” said Mr David Gibson, a US Church expert.
New archbishop has ‘great heart’ for Latino community
At a press conference in New York a few hours after the Vatican’s announcement, Bishop Hicks, 58, gave some remarks in Spanish before speaking in English. He said he has a “great heart” for the Latino community as a former missionary in Latin America.
He also repeated an earlier endorsement of the US Catholic bishops’ condemnation of President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown
.
He said the US should protect its borders but “also be a country that upholds human dignity, respect, (and) treating each other well”.
Bishop Hicks, leader of the Church in Joliet, Illinois, since 2020, has several similarities to Pope Leo. They are both originally from south Chicago suburbs but spent years as missionaries in Latin America – Pope Leo in Peru, while Bishop Hicks in El Salvador.
“(Leo) is elevating to the most prominent American see an Illinois native very much like himself,” said Mr Gibson, director of Fordham University’s Centre on Religion and Culture.
Bishop Hicks joked at the press conference that he and Pope Leo even have the same favourite pizza restaurant.
The Archdiocese of New York is a sprawling and influential institution, serving Catholics in Manhattan, the Bronx and Staten Island and in seven counties to the north across 296 parishes and hundreds of Catholic schools and hospitals.
Pope Leo’s replacement of Cardinal Dolan comes as the archdiocese is struggling to raise more than US$300 million (S$386 million) for expected settlements with survivors of abuse by Catholic clergy.
The archdiocese has entered mediation with some 1,300 alleged survivors, with Cardinal Dolan announcing on Dec 8 that the archdiocese would cut its operating budget by 10 per cent, lay off staff and sell properties as it sought to raise funds for payouts.
Bishop Hicks will be installed in his new role on Feb 6, the New York archdiocese said in a statement. Cardinal Dolan will remain as temporary leader in the interim.
Bishop Hicks seen as supporter of Pope Francis’ reforms
Mr Gibson said the bishop is “a soft-spoken Midwesterner who embraces the reformist line of Pope Francis and who is respected by many across the divides in a polarised church”.
The late Pope Francis, who led Catholicism for 12 years until his death in April, pursued a reform agenda
and tried to make the Church more inclusive of a diverse range of viewpoints, sometimes creating pushback from conservative cardinals.
In an October pastoral letter to the roughly 520,000 Catholics in Joliet, Bishop Hicks did not address political issues or Church reforms and instead urged his people to focus on their prayer lives and to spread their faith among others.
Cardinal Dolan is seen as a leading conservative among the US bishops, who have become more divided in recent years amid deepening political polarisation in the country.
The cardinal delivered one of the invocations at Mr Trump’s second inauguration and praised right-wing political activist Charlie Kirk as a “modern-day St Paul”, sparking online criticism from a range of Catholics.
Cardinal Dolan, known for a gregarious personality, is a frequent guest on the conservative Fox & Friends talk show and hosts his own weekly programme on SiriusXM’s The Catholic Channel. REUTERS