When Ronald Hicks knocked on the massive doors of New York’s St. Patrick’s Cathedral on Friday, he was announcing himself ceremonially as the new archbishop of one of the country’s most storied and powerful Catholic enclaves and also as the most high-profile representative of the new pope’s style of ministry.
Hicks, 58, has signaled that his north star for the new post will be to helm a missionary church, building bridges across diverse communities. He is succeeding Cardinal Timothy Dolan, a conservative archbishop who retired at 75, as required by the Catholic Church. In December, Pope Leo XIV appointed Hicks, a man who grew up a few blocks from the pontiff and follows the example he sets.
