New York's New Archbishop Ronald Hicks: Roots, Pastoral Priorities, and Global Outlook

Ronald A. Hicks, born August 4, 1967, in Chicago to Ronald and Rosalee Hicks, is a prominent American Catholic prelate known for his expertise in priestly formation and missionary work.[1][2][4] He earned a Bachelor of Arts in philosophy from Niles College of Loyola University Chicago in 1989 and a Master of Divinity in 1994.[5][6] Ordained a priest for the Archdiocese of Chicago on May 21, 1994, Hicks began his ministry as associate pastor at Our Lady of Mercy Parish (1994-1996) and St. Elizabeth Seton Parish in Orland Hills, Illinois (1996-1999).[1][2][3] From 1999 to 2005, he served as dean of formation at St. Joseph College Seminary in Chicago. In 2005, he moved to El Salvador as regional director for Nuestros Pequeños Hermanos (NPH), overseeing care for over 3,400 orphaned and abandoned children across nine Latin American and Caribbean countries—a role reflecting his early post-high school volunteering with the organization.[1][2][3][4] Returning in 2010, he resumed as dean of formation at Mundelein Seminary until 2014, while assisting at St. Jerome Parish.[1][2][3] Hicks advanced rapidly: appointed vicar general of the Archdiocese of Chicago by Cardinal Blase Cupich on January 1, 2015; ordained auxiliary bishop on September 17, 2018; and named bishop of the Diocese of Joliet, Illinois, by Pope Francis on July 17, 2020.[1][2][3] He chairs the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' Committee on Clergy, Consecrated Life and Vocations, serves as liaison to related associations, and sits on boards for the Catholic Extension Society and Mundelein Seminary.[3][4] On December 18, 2025, Pope Leo XIV appointed him the 11th archbishop of New York, succeeding Cardinal Timothy Dolan, with installation set for February 2026—elevating his profile in one of the Church's most influential sees.[1][2][4] Hicks remains noted for pro-life advocacy, including leading a 3.4-mile Eucharistic Procession for Life in Naperville.[4]

Pope Leo XIII, born Vincenzo Gioacchino Pecci on March 2, 1810, in Carpineto Romano, Italy, served as the 256th pope of the Roman Catholic Church from 1878 until his death on July 20, 1903, at age 93.[1][2][3] The oldest pope at election, he was a diplomat, scholar, and reformer who succeeded the tumultuous reign of Pius IX, restoring stability to the Church amid the loss of the Papal States in 1870.[1][2] Before his papacy, Pecci excelled as a civil servant, legate in Benevento and Spoleto, and archbishop of Perugia from 1846 to 1878, where he built homeless shelters, soup kitchens, reformed taxes, and aided earthquake victims, donating his 1853 cardinal elevation funds to flood relief.[1][3][4] Elevated to cardinal in 1853, he modernized seminaries, revived Thomist theology, and founded charitable institutions.[3][4] As pope, Leo XIII bridged faith and modernity, re-founding the Vatican Observatory and affirming science-religion harmony.[1][5][6] Known as the "Rosary Pope," he issued eleven encyclicals on the rosary and approved new Marian scapulars.[2][6] His landmark 1891 encyclical *Rerum Novarum* championed workers' rights, just wages, unions, and private property while critiquing socialism and unchecked capitalism, founding Catholic Social Teaching.[5][7][8] A skilled diplomat, he improved ties with Russia, Germany, France, Britain, Italy, the U.S., Brazil, and Eastern Orthodox churches, opened Vatican Archives in 1883, and created 248 new dioceses.[1][2][4] He promoted Marian devotion, education, and aid for the poor, including a Vatican hospice during the 1891 cholera pandemic.[2][6] Leo XIII's intellectual legacy endures in social justice doctrine, Church-world engagement, and Thomism's revival, positioning the Church as a mainstream European force despite lacking temporal power.[1][2][5] His remains rest in the Archbasilica of Saint John Lateran.[2]