A new archbishop for New York, caring for the poor and marginalised like Leo XIV
Ronald A. Hicks, 58, acknowledged the similarities between himself and Pope Leo XIV in an interview earlier this year with WGN, a Chicago television station
Pope Leo XIV has chosen Bishop Ronald A. Hicks, 58, of Joliet, Illinois, to lead the important archdiocese of New York, replacing Cardinal Timothy Dolan, who led New York's 2.8 million Catholics for 16 years.
Dolan, following Vatican rules, had resigned when he turned 75 in February. Like Robert Francis Prevost, Hicks is an advocate of Pope Francis' welcoming and inclusive vision of Catholicism, with a focus on social justice.
Born in Harvey, Illinois, in 1967, Hicks grew up in South Holland, not far from the suburb of Chicago where Pope Leo XIV also grew up.
Hicks acknowledged the similarities between himself and Pope Leo XIV in an interview earlier this year with WGN, a Chicago television station. "We literally grew up in the same radius, in the same neighbourhood. We played in the same parks, we went swimming in the same pools, we liked the same pizza places," Hicks said.
Like Prevost, who spent more than a decade in Peru, Hicks said he was inspired in his ministry by his time spent in Latin America, where, from 2005 to 2010, he served in El Salvador as regional director of Nuestros Pequeños Hermanos, a non-profit home for orphans and abandoned children.
