Pope Leo XIV has accepted the resignation of influential New York Archbishop Timothy Dolan, a leading figure of the US church’s conservative wing, the Vatican said Thursday.

The Catholic Church’s first US pope replaced Dolan, who stepped down in accordance with canon law upon reaching the age of 75, with a little-known 58-year-old bishop from Illinois, Ronald Hicks.

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The New York archdiocese is among the largest in the US, and the pick ends months of speculation about who would follow Dolan, widely regarded as being close to US President Donald Trump.

This is the most important bishop appointment Leo has made since he was elected to lead the world’s Catholics in May and signals a desire to take a firmer stance on the US administration’s decisions, particularly on human rights.

Hicks shares several similarities with Leo, including solidarity with migrants, in contrast with Trump’s deportation drive.

In November, he endorsed a rare statement from the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, which heavily criticised the administration’s zero-tolerance immigration policies.

He said the statement “affirms our solidarity with all our brothers and sisters as it expresses our concerns, opposition, and hopes with clarity and conviction.

“It is grounded in the Church’s enduring commitment to the Catholic social teaching of human dignity and a call for meaningful immigration reform,” he said.

‘Great Affinity’

In an interview with Vatican News published just after his appointment on Thursday, the new Archbishop said he had “a great affinity for (Pope Leo) and a lot of respect”.

Hicks spent five years of ministry in El Salvador in Central America, heading a church-run orphanage programme that operated across nine Latin American and Caribbean countries. Leo spent two decades in service in Peru.

The outgoing bishop of Joliet, Illinois, also served in several parishes in the Archdiocese of Chicago, the city where Leo was born — though the pair only met for the first time in 2024.

Dolan, a ruddy-faced extrovert with Irish-American roots, has served in New York since 2009.

A theological conservative fiercely opposed to abortion, Dolan sparked controversy in September by comparing the conservative political activist Charlie Kirk to a “modern-day Saint Paul”.

AFP