Cardinal Dolan says his successor is 'immensely qualified' to lead NYC's faithful

Can a Midwesterner who’s never lived in New York City succeed as the leader of more than 2 million Roman Catholics in and around the five boroughs?

If I could do it, Cardinal Timothy Dolan told his successor Ronald Hicks on Thursday, you can, too.

Pope Leo XIV announced that he had accepted Dolan’s resignation, which he offered by custom on his 75th birthday in February. Leo named Hicks, the bishop of Joliet, Illinois, to take his place. Hicks will be formally installed in February.

The 58-year-old incoming prelate was ordained in 1994 in the Archdiocese of Chicago. He has been in his current role in Joliet, which is located about 50 miles south of the Windy City, since 2020. He spent five years as a missionary in El Salvador.

“My desire is to do the will of God with a shepherd’s heart,” Hicks said during a joint appearance with Dolan. In Spanish, the incoming archbishop said his heart is filled with a love of Latino culture. Hicks grew up roughly 14 blocks from Pope Leo’s childhood home and said he’s visited New York fewer than a dozen times in his life.

The cardinal praised Hicks as “immensely qualified.”

“Is there sadness in my heart? Sure, because I love the Archdiocese of New York,” Dolan said.

Later, a reporter asked Dolan if he had accomplished what he set out to do during his 16-year run.

“ No, and that ain't bad because there's always a lot left to do and I'm glad he's here to do it,” the outgoing prelate said. “ I’m grateful for the things I was able to accomplish, with God's grace; His mercy when I failed, as I often did.”

Dolan presided over the archdiocese as it downsized due to declining church attendance and the fallout from a sexual abuse scandal. He closed schools and consolidated parishes. He oversaw a renovation of St. Patrick’s Cathedral, a Neo-Gothic gem in Midtown that welcomes visitors from around the world.

But observers said he will be most remembered for his avuncular style and spirited defense of the church and its teachings.

“He’s a genuine New York character,” said David Gibson, director of Fordham University’s Center on Religion and Culture. “He can yuck it up with the best of them. He's hilarious. He's generous with his time. People love him. People who know him love him and he's out there – he's a pastor.”

Dolan’s ability to serve as an ambassador to everyone from Catholic workers to Jewish business leaders has served the church well, said former Westchester County Executive Rob Astorino, who launched the Catholic channel on Sirius XM.

“His biggest attribute is his ability to communicate – through the media, but also, to be extraordinarily friendly to everyone and make them feel comfortable,” Astorino said.

Dolan, who is a Midwesterner by both birth and sensibility, was first ordained a priest in Missouri and was serving as the bishop of Milwaukee when Pope Benedict XVI tapped him to run the Archdiocese of New York in 2009. Dolan was elevated to cardinal three years later, and participated in the papal conclaves that elected Popes Francis and Leo XIV.

He cut a distinct figure from Edward Cardinal Egan, who was remembered for shoring up church finances during his nine-year tenure, making decisions that alienated some of the faithful.

“Cardinal Dolan was a breath of fresh air,” said Paul Moses, a journalist who previously covered the Archdiocese of New York and now writes for the magazine Commonweal.

Dolan’s early tenure also included consolidation. He shuttered a dozen schools and around 30 churches, moves that were mirrored in Catholic dioceses around the Northeast. The demographics of the city’s churchgoing Catholics continued to shift from Irish and Italian parishioners to a larger number of Latin American worshippers. Dolan managed the changes as well as he could with fewer resources, Gibson said.

The cardinal was generally considered a conservative, both politically and liturgically. Dolan lobbied against a bill to allow physician-assisted death, which Gov. Kathy Hochul said she will sign into law, as well as legislation that strengthened the state’s abortion rights laws.

In 2011 Dolan traveled to the state Capitol and called into a radio show to push against the legalization of same-sex marriage, explaining that it would redefine a liturgical sacrament. More than a decade later, though, he sent a letter of welcome to people attending an LGBT Catholic conference.

Astorino said Dolan’s views don’t fit neatly into a political framework.

“ Cardinal Dolan is to the right of center, but again, there's such emphasis in the United States on pure ideological spectrums as we see it for politics, which is not the case for the Catholic church,” he said.

Moses said Dolan’s conservatism was more in line with the style of Benedict, who appointed him, than his successors Francis and Leo.

“Within the larger church, he was sort of marginalized – as a conservative he was at odds with what Pope Francis was trying to do,” Moses said.

Indeed, Dolan offered prayers at President Donald Trump’s 2017 inauguration and the 2024 Republican National Convention. He also spoke out against efforts to tear down statues of historical figures who enslaved people, or had other flaws.

The length of time a prelate remains in office past his 75th birthday is often seen as a sign of his relative favor in the eyes of the pope, Gibson said. Some cardinals are allowed to remain in their posts for as much as five years.

Dolan’s replacement after less than one year signals he is out of sync with Leo’s current vision of the church, Gibson said.

“He's more old-fashioned,” Gibson said. “He's a church historian and he just loves that kind of institutional, historic way.”

Gibson described Hicks as similar to Leo: someone with a missionary streak and a more inclusive spirit. Hicks said that he met Leo shortly before his elevation, and the two immediately connected.

The archdiocese continues to grapple with the fallout from sexual abuse by clergy and other church employees. New York lawmakers in 2019 approved the Child Victims Act, which included a one-year window during which the statute of limitations was lifted for people molested as children to sue their abusers. Dolan and other Catholic leaders lobbied against the law for years.

The financial liability from a flood of lawsuits has prompted dioceses in Buffalo, Albany and Rockville Centre to declare bankruptcy. The New York archdiocese is fighting with its insurer over its responsibility for past abuse.

One of Dolan’s last moves in office was to sell church-owned real estate in Midtown to raise $300 million for a fund to compensate the victims of clergy sexual abuse. The cardinal said he hopes he can reach a resolution to the remaining cases.

Hicks said he would continue to look at the issue.

“ As a church, we can never rest in our efforts to prevent abuse, to protect children, and to care for survivors,” he said. “While this work is challenging, it's difficult, it's painful. I hope it will continue to help in the areas of accountability, transparency, and healing.”

Clad in their clericals — the standard black suits and white collars worn by Catholic priests off the altar — the two men made their first joint appearance in the narthex of St. Patrick’s Cathedral. Dolan oversaw a $177 million renovation of what he calls “America’s Parish Church” and personally commissioned a new mural to flank the bronze doors of its Fifth Avenue entrance. It’s the largest artwork ever added to the cathedral.

Dolan unveiled “What’s so Funny About Peace, Love and Understanding” in September, as the Trump administration attempts to carry out the largest mass deportation effort in U.S. history. The U.S. Conference of Bishops issued a statement saying it was disturbed by the administration’s tactics.

The four 25-foot-tall panels of the mural commemorate the Apparition of Knock, an 1879 event in Ireland where 15 people witnessed a vision of the Virgin Mary and other church figures on the wall of their parish church. St. Patrick’s Cathedral, which opened the same year in New York, is seen as a monument to the Irish Catholic immigrants who came to the city in the 19th century.

The mural depicts major Catholic figures in New York, including former Gov. Al Smith and Dorothy Day. First responders are painted in an opposite panel. Another panel shows European immigrants of the 18th century – one woman is modeled after Dolan’s late mother. And the last panel depicts today's immigrants – people with brown and bronzed skin wearing sneakers and T-shirts.

Dolan said at a September unveiling that the mural was aesthetically beautiful – brightening up a dark corner visited by millions of people each year – and historically accurate.

“Some have asked me, are you trying to make a statement about immigration? Well, sure we are. All right, namely that immigrants are children of God,” the cardinal said in September. “This is about what went on in the past, what’s going on now, and please God under the protection of the angels, what will continue to go on.”

After Hicks concluded his event he walked with Dolan down the cathedral’s central aisle. Dolan turned to the mural and pointed, as Hick nodded in awe.

Then they continued toward the altar and welcomed a random visitor.

Correction: A previous version of this story misidentified the traditional uniform of priests.