Archbishop Hicks, at New York installation Mass, calls for a ‘missionary Church, not a country club’
February 09, 2026
Archbishop Ronald Hicks was installed as archbishop of New York on February 6, at a Mass in St. Patrick’s Cathedral (video).
“Today in the Gospel, Jesus gives us the Great Commission,” Archbishop Hicks preached. “This is a call to be a missionary Church, not a country club.”
“A club exists to serve its members,” he continued. “The Church, on the other hand, exists to go out and serve all people, on fire with faith, hope, and charity in the name of Jesus Christ. This is not a criticism, but an invitation to renew who we are and rediscover why the Church exists. To follow Jesus, who fed the hungry, healed those ill in body and spirit, rejected hatred and proclaimed love.”
Archbishop Hicks added:
We are called to be a missionary Church that takes care of the poor and the vulnerable, upholds life from conception to natural death, cares for creation, builds bridges, listens synodally, protects children, promotes healing for survivors and for all those wounded by the Church, and shows respect for all, building unity across cultures and generations.
Brothers and sisters, I believe the world always has and always will need a missionary Church. A Church that proclaims Jesus Christ clearly and without fear. A Church that forms missionary disciples, not passive spectators. A Church that goes out to the peripheries.
Born in 1967 and ordained a priest of the Archdiocese of Chicago in 1994, Hicks became vicar general of the Archdiocese of Chicago in 2015, auxiliary bishop of Chicago in 2018, and bishop of Joliet, Illinois, in 2020.
Archbishop Hicks succeeds Cardinal Timothy Dolan, the see’s archbishop since 2009, whose resignation Pope Leo accepted for reasons of age. Archbishop Hicks’s seven immediate predecessors in New York were created cardinals.
Archbishop Hicks inherits an archdiocese that has experienced a steep decline in Catholic population. According to statistics published in the 2025 edition of The Official Catholic Directory, the archdiocese is now the nation’s sixth most populous diocese, behind Los Angeles, Phoenix, Chicago, Boston, and Galveston-Houston. In the 2024 edition, the Archdiocese of New York ranked second.
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