Cardinal Blase Cupich was one of Pope Francis’ first major ecclesiastical appointments in 2014, picked to lead the Archdiocese of Chicago that he still helms.
Francis’ successor, Pope Leo XIV, reached into the Chicago region for one of his first major appointments, announcing Thursday that Ronald Hicks is replacing Cardinal Timothy Dolan as the leader of the Archdiocese of New York — one of the most prominent roles in the Catholic church.
The appointment comes days after Dolan’s office announced the New York archdiocese was creating a $300 million fund to settle more than 1,000 legal claims of child sexual abuse against priests and other church officials — part of the decades-long clergy sex abuse scandal that continues to cast a shadow over the church and many of its leaders.
“I have been deeply blessed to serve the people of the Diocese of Joliet,” Hicks, 58, said in a statement posted online Thursday. “I will carry the faith, generosity, and the spirit of this diocese with me as I begin this new chapter of ministry.”
Hicks will be formally installed as New York’s archbishop Feb. 6 at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Manhattan, according to a press release from the Joliet diocese.
Hicks was born in Harvey, raised in South Holland and appointed by Pope Francis in 2020 with Cupich’s backing as bishop of the Diocese of Joliet, the arm of the church for DuPage, Kendall and Will counties, among other parts of downstate Illinois.
Beyond being the pastoral leader of that part of the Chicago region, Hicks was tasked with further stabilizing church operations there, as the diocese had been one of the epicenters of the abuse crisis under one of his predecessors, the late Bishop Joseph Imesch.
“Under Imesch, the diocese covered up abuse committed by Joliet priests by shipping them off to new parishes without relaying their history of abuse,” according to a 2023 Illinois attorney general report. “When these failures came to light in 2002 and its aftermath, Imesch caused further harm by casting blame on others and mistreating abuse survivors.”
After that disastrous period, the diocese “was on the forefront of adopting measures widely used today to investigate, prevent, and remedy child sex abuse by clerics,” the attorney general wrote, though noting that under Hicks, local church leaders believe “it is a problem of the past that does not warrant ongoing attention.”
One of Hicks’ challenges in the Joliet diocese was contending with shrinking numbers of congregants and priests, and corresponding financial issues.
Mirroring a larger initiative by Cupich, Hicks embarked on an effort to close or merge a number of Catholic parishes and schools in the Joliet diocese, roiling many congregants who didn’t want to see their worship sites shuttered.
He let underlings take the lead, and publicly dealt with the controversy, if at all, through pastoral letters and prerecorded videos.
Hicks has refused to discuss how Joliet’s sex abuse legal settlements played into the financial distress, and how much money had been paid out over time.
When a Chicago Sun-Times reporter pressed him on this subject, his office and the diocese media office blocked the reporter’s phone number.
An interview with Hicks just posted on a Vatican web site is giving some perspective on Hicks’ appointment.
“I grew up in the suburb right next door to Pope Leo, about 14 blocks away from each other,” Hicks said. “And like Pope Leo, I’m looking for a Church that brings God’s light to the world, His peace, His healing, His love.”
“I’m also looking forward to ways of doing so, not in a divisive way or tearing people apart, but looking for ways of unity and finding ways to cooperate with each other.”
“And you brought up Pope Leo: I just want to publicly say I want to cooperate with him. I want to respect his priorities and work with him to help bring those to reality, to light.”
Hicks’ appointment speaks to Cupich’s continued influence under Pope Leo, whose real name is Robert Prevost and who hails from Dolton.
Cupich’s influence was on display in the months leading up to Pope Francis’ death in April.
A close Cupich associate, Robert McElroy, was named archbishop of Washington, D.C., earlier this year before Pope Francis’ death.
A former Cupich aide who hails from Alsip, Robert Casey, was named archbishop of Cincinnati earlier this year.
A longtime Chicago-area priest, Michael McGovern, was named Omaha’s archbishop this past spring.
And a year ago, another veteran Chicago area priest, Jeffrey Grob, was named archbishop of Milwaukee.