By Joshua McElwee
VATICAN CITY, Dec 18 (Reuters) – Pope Leo replaced Cardinal Timothy Dolan as the leader of the Catholic Church in New York, the Vatican announced on Thursday, sidelining a prominent U.S. Church figure in a major shake-up of the country’s Catholic leadership.
Leo, the first U.S. pope, appointed a relatively unknown cleric from Illinois, Bishop Ronald Hicks, to replace Dolan as leader of the nation’s second-largest Catholic diocese, home to some 2.8 million Church members.
Dolan, Archbishop of New York since 2009 and a former president of the U.S. 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 David Gibson, a U.S. Church expert.
The Archdiocese of New York is a sprawling and influential institution, serving Catholics across Manhattan, the Bronx and Staten Island and in seven counties to the north across 296 parishes and hundreds of Catholic schools and hospitals.
Leo’s replacement of Dolan comes as the archdiocese is struggling to raise more than $300 million for expected settlements with survivors of abuse by Catholic clergy.
The archdiocese has entered mediation with some 1,300 alleged survivors, with Dolan announcing on December 8 the archdiocese would cut its operating budget by 10%, lay off staff and sell properties as it sought to raise funds for payouts.
Hicks, 58, has been leader of the Church in Joliet, seat of Will County in Illinois, since 2020. He previously served as an auxiliary bishop, or deputy, under Chicago’s Cardinal Blase Cupich.
His biography has several similarities to Leo’s. They are both originally from south Chicago suburbs but spent years as missionaries in Latin America – Leo in Peru while Hicks in El Salvador.
“(Leo) is elevating to the most prominent American see an Illinois native very much like himself,” said Gibson, director of Fordham University’s Center on Religion and Culture.
(Reporting by Joshua McElwee, Editing by Andrew Cawthorne)
