Confirmed: Joliet's Bishop Hicks to NYC
Sources close to the Dicastery for Bishops confirmed the appointment to The Pillar.
Pope Leo XIV is expected to appoint Bishop Ronald Hicks of Joliet as the next Archbishop of New York, The Pillar has confirmed, with an announcement expected as early as Dec. 18.
Rumors about the prospect of a Hicks move to New York began circulating Monday, following a report forecasting the move at the Spanish Religión Digital website. Chicago media figures fueled speculation online about an imminent appointment, with rumors continuing to circulate among ecclesiastical figures and Church-watchers.
Sources close to the Dicastery for Bishops in Rome confirmed the appointment to The Pillar Dec. 16, indicating that the move is likely to be announced Thursday.
Hicks will succeed Cardinal Timothy Dolan, 75, who has served in New York since 2009. The bishop’s appointment will bring to an end months of speculation about Dolan’s successor, with several candidates speculated for the position.
The task of leading the New York archdiocese is not likely to be easy.
Dolan announced last week that the archdiocese is selling off real estate to put aside some $300 million, into a fund meant for the compensation of sexual abuse survivors. Real estate sold off for the fund includes the $100 million sale last year of the archdiocesan headquarters at 1011 First Avenue, after which chancery operations were moved to a former Catholic high school.
The archdiocese has engaged a retired judge to serve as mediator for negotiations toward a global settlement for abuse survivors. Meanwhile, Dolan explained that the archdiocese continues in litigation with Chubb Insurance, a long time archdiocesan liability insurer, which Dolan said has “steadfastly refused to honor the policies it issued.”
The New York archdiocese has also struggled in recent years to encourage priestly vocations, with only two men applying to diocesan formation in 2024, and the number of priests declining by 51% between 1970 and 2020. In June, the archdiocese said it had 18 men in priestly formation, for a Catholic population of 2.5 million, with some 300 parishes.
According to the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate, religious practice has fallen markedly across the archdiocese in the last five decades, even while its Catholic population has increased by more than 50%.
Bishop Hicks, 58, has significant experience in administration, and spent five years of priestly ministry in Central America.
Hicks was born in Harvey, Illinois on Aug. 4, 1967. He attended a local Catholic grade school, then studied philosophy at Niles College of Loyola University, graduating in 1989. He later went on to earn a master of divinity degree and doctor of ministry degree from University of St. Mary of the Lake in Mundelein.
He was ordained a priest in 1994 and served at several parishes in the Archdiocese of Chicago over the next five years. In 1999, he was appointed dean of formation at St. Joseph College Seminary.
In 2005, Hicks moved to El Salvador, where he spent the next five years as regional director of an orphanage that operates throughout Latin America.
Upon his return to Chicago in 2010, Hicks became dean of formation at Mundelein Seminary and was named archdiocesan vicar general in 2015.
Sources close to the bishop say he was close to the late Cardinal Francis George, who led the archdiocese from 1997 until 2014.
In 2018, Hicks was ordained an auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Chicago. In 2020, he was appointed as Bishop of Joliet.
Hicks is chairman of the USCCB’s Committee on Clergy, Consecrated Life, and Vocations.
While there has been speculation about how Hicks was nominated to New York, the bishop has had at least some personal connection directly with Pope Leo.
In May, Hicks told WGN News that he met Pope Leo XIV, then Cardinal Robert Prevost, when the cardinal gave a 2024 talk at an Illinois parish.
“I walked away [from the talk] saying ‘I learned something tonight. I learned something about our faith. I learned something about our Church.’”
“And [Prevost] did so in a way that was clear, concise, creative, and — finally — humble,” Hicks said.
Of their brief meeting, Hicks said the men chatted after the 2024 lecture for about 20 minutes, with Hicks concluding that Prevost “takes more time to listen than to talk.”
Hicks also praised that Leo “doesn’t back away or shy away” from tough issues, and that he would lead “with the heart of a shepherd.”
The bishop said that he saw similarities between himself and Prevost, with the two having grown up nearby one another, having “played in the same parks, went swimming in the same pools, liked the same pizza places.”
But Hicks said that unlike the pontiff, he is a “die-hard” Chicago Cubs fan, and that his father wanted him and his siblings to “stay Catholic and stay Cub fans.”
"The New York archdiocese has also struggled in recent years to encourage priestly vocations, with only two men applying to diocesan formation in 2024, and the number of priests declining by 51% between 1970 and 2020. In June, the archdiocese said it had 18 men in priestly formation, for a Catholic population of 2.5 million, with some 300 parishes."
That is one of the most heartbreaking paragraphs I've read in my years as a Pillar reader.
Guess I'll repeat my comment to the newsletter here:
I've been in the Joliet diocese for a couple of decades now. Hicks became bishop during Covid, and so, while he's been here five years, it "feels" more like two. In any event, commentary out there in the arena of the Catholic internet seems to assume that, since he was Cupich's auxiliary for a couple years, Hicks must be on the progressive side of the spectrum. But as a member of the diocese and a bit more attentive to these things than your average bear, I have to say that I don't see it. Pretty much anyone they put in would be to the left of Dolan - but that doesn't mean we'll see calls for lady deacons in the Big Apple any time soon.