Archbishop of New York Timothy Michael Cardinal Dolan is resigning, as required by Canon Law, and is being replaced by Ronald A. Hicks, who has served as the Bishop of Joliet in Illinois since 2020.
Archbishop of New York since 2009, Dolan - whose great-great-grandparents hailed from Cos Cavan and Leitrim - submitted his required letter of retirement upon reaching the age of 75 on February 6 this year.
On Thursday, the Vatican announced that Pope Leo XIV had accepted Dolan's resignation and, in turn, appointed Bishop Ronald A. Hicks as the next Archbishop of New York.
Dolan will be Apostolic Administrator of the Archdiocese of New York until the installation of Hicks by Cardinal Christophe Pierre, Apostolic Nuncio to the US, at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City on February 6, 2026.
Hicks will be the tenth Archbishop of New York, and the first without Irish roots.
Dolan warmly welcomed Hicks during a press conference at St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York City on Thursday:
Cardinal Dolan's Irish connections
Dolan, who was born and raised in Missouri, traces his Irish roots back to Co Cavan and Co Leitrim, from where his great-great-grandparents left in the mid-19th century.
They were "desperately joining hundreds of thousands of other emaciated Irish fleeing the anguish of the Famine," Dolan, who was ordained in 1976, said while speaking at Maynooth University in Ireland in 2013.
In 2010, Dolan was named by then-Pope Benedict XVI as Apostolic Visitator for the Irish Seminaries as part of a wider Apostolic Visitation in the wake of the damning Murphy and Ryan reports regarding sexual abuse throughout the Church in Ireland.
Dolan visited the Pontifical Irish College in Rome, Saint Malachy's College in Belfast, the National Seminary in Dublin, Saint Patrick's College in Maynooth, and the Milltown Institute of the Society of Jesus.
In June 2012, Dolan's 17-page report on the Irish College in Rome was leaked to the Irish Times, which reported that the Archbishop wrote, in part, that “the college suffers from the reputation of being ‘gay friendly’, however unjust such a reputation might be.”
Writing in the third person, he did, however, add that he was “eager to underline that he did not find any evidence of rampant immorality, or a homosexual subculture, and that the overwhelming majority of the seminarians are committed to a faithful, chaste lifestyle, and upset by the undeserved perception that the college now tolerates deviant behaviour. Likewise, he is convinced that the staff in no way condones such conduct.”
The Association of Catholic Priests slammed Dolan's findings, saying his report "effectively destroyed the reputations of priests, who have given lifelong service to the Irish Catholic Church, without giving them a right of reply to the allegations made against them."
In its Summary of the Findings of the Apostolic Visitation in Ireland, the Vatican outlined its observations and recommendations.
In 2015, Dolan served as Grand Marshal of the New York City St. Patrick's Day Parade. It was also famously the first year, following years of controversy and mounting boycotts, that an LGBT group was permitted to march under their own banner.
Dolan was met with "fiery" criticism for not standing down from his Grand Marshal post after the admittance of the LGBT group. Explaining his decision to remain Grand Marshal, he highlighted how the choice to let the group march was not his to make.
He went on to write that he believed the new policy did not "violate Catholic faith or morals" and that "'being Gay' is not a sin," though "homosexual actions are, as are any sexual relations outside of the lifelong, faithful, loving, lifegiving bond of a man and woman in marriage a moral teaching grounded in the Bible, reflected in nature, and faithfully taught by the Church."
He said the parade committee's decision "allows a group to publicize its identity, not promote actions contrary to the values of the Church that are such an essential part of Irish culture."
In 2023, Dolan received the special Buan Chara Award at the Spirit of Kylemore Awards in New York for his continued advocacy and support of the Benedictine nuns of Kylemore in Co Galway.
Dolan is a regular visitor to Ireland - though he had a rather bumpy journey earlier this year. In February, he was among the passengers on a Newark to Dublin flight that was diverted to Canada and remained stuck there for a few days. During the diversion, Dolan said Mass at the Basilica-Cathedral of St. John the Baptist in St. John's, Newfoundland.
In September, Dolan helped unveil a new mural at St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York City, which prominently features Irish immigrants and the 1879 Apparition of Knock in Co Mayo.
September 17, 2025: Cardinal Timothy Dolan (L) with artist Adam Cvijanovic in St. Patrick's Cathedral.
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