Msgr. Roger J. Landry
National Catholic Register
December 18, 2025
The announcement by the Vatican this morning that Pope Leo XIV accepted the resignation of Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York and appointed Archbishop-designate Ronald Hicks to succeed him will bring a lot of deserved attention to the affable and talented former bishop of Joliet, Illinois.
But what should not be lost in the news of the appointment of New York’s 11th archbishop is the proper celebration and gratitude owed for extraordinary contributions to the Church — in New York, the United States and universal — of the 10th.
If St. Patrick’s Cathedral is, as its often referred to, America’s Parish Church, Cardinal Timothy Dolan has really been America’s pastor. Like a diligent parish priest, he celebrates the principal 10:15 Mass every Sunday morning he is in New York. He does the same every morning with the 7 a.m. daily Mass, a discipline without known parallel for cardinal archbishops. Both Masses are broadcast nationally on St. Patrick’s state-of-the-art livestream and then simulcast on SiriusXM 129, the Catholic Channel, reinforcing his daily impact.
If ever there has been a priest with a personality as big as New York, it is Cardinal Timothy Dolan. Despite his Midwest provenance, he was born to be the archbishop of New York. That congruity has been on display not just at the cathedral, but throughout the city and enormous archdiocese.
In groundbreakings, stages or daises filled with presidents, vice-presidents, business titans, sports and entertainment celebrities and other stars, he is normally brightest in the firmament. He brings energy, enthusiasm and boisterous laughter into almost any room, as he proceeds to greet, hug, and back-slap almost everyone in his path.
In a split second, he can form bonds as if someone were a childhood chum. Photographs taken with him on such occasions almost always feature people not just smiling but laughing.
I remember once being with him for lunch on Easter Sunday with a table of priests and archdiocesan staff at a club where he had an honorary membership. He kindly invited us because many of us were new to the city and he wanted to ensure we had someplace to celebrate Christ’s resurrection. During lunch, over 80 minutes, he was interrupted no fewer than 40 times by people likewise having lunch at the club. He stood up for every person, known or new, gave them a handshake or hug, and spoke with joy to them until they were ready to leave. It was a display of heroic dedication and patience that he made look easy.
Contagiously upbeat, inspiringly encouraging, and invitingly amicable, he is not just a faithful herald of the Gospel but a joyful personification of the Good News. New York has needed it, as have the United States. The Church universal will always need it.
Pope Francis wrote in Evangelii Gaudium that the mission of the Church require “joyful messengers of challenging proposals, guardians of the goodness and beauty that shine forth in a life of fidelity to the Gospel, … whose lives glow with fervor who have first received the joy of Christ” (9, 168) and anyone who has known Cardinal Dolan — from his time as a boy in Ballwin, Missouri, seminarian in St. Louis and Rome, parish priest, seminary or university professor, nunciature local collaborator, rector, auxiliary bishop or archbishop — would agree that those words aptly describe him, in season and out of season, in front of the lights or one-on-one.
Upon being named a cardinal in 2012, he was asked by Pope Benedict XVI to address the whole College of Cardinals on sharing the good news in a secularized world. He was evidently the one the Holy Father considered the most capable of delivering on the theme because he so obviously lives it. One must be almost blind to miss it.
Blessed with quick wit and natural and supernatural joie de vivre, Dolan iconically allows people to see the Good News at the same time he proclaims it. He credibly preaches the truths of the faith, including the harder and more controversial ones, as part of the divine plan for our happiness and holiness.
Choosing as his motto St. Peter’s words to Jesus in the Gospel of John (6:69), “Ad quem ibimus?” (“Lord, to whom shall we go?”), he believes not only in the Lord’s triumph over sin and death in the Resurrection, but in the Lord’s promise to be with us until the end of time. The joy from that fact of faith gushes forth in almost everything he does.
As he was preparing for his installation as archbishop of New York, he said he wanted to rebuild confidence among Catholics who were embarrassed and disillusioned after the horrors of the clergy sex abuse crisis. He was well acquainted with those abominations, as the trusted point person in the Archdiocese of St. Louis for helping those who suffered, as well as the prelate the Vatican appointed to clean up the multiple scandals of his predecessor in Milwaukee.
With a heart full of compassion and a head capable of communicating light amid the darkness, he was able to help the Church and many faithful on the slow path to recovery. He brought those same skills to the Archdiocese of New York, where until his last days, he was dealing with the fallout from sins and crimes committed decades ago.
While Cardinal Dolan hopefully will have many years in front of him to contribute to the Church, what are some of the many things for which the Church in New York and beyond will doubtless be grateful? We can name an apostolic dozen.
First, as a rector and a bishop, he is one of the great formators of priests in recent times. He not only gives an example of how to be a happy priest, but also to pray hard, work hard, be with people, preach the faith attractively, prioritize time for priestly fraternity and take necessary rest.
He often says he can’t remember a time when he didn’t want to be a priest and it’s obvious he still enjoys and loves the priesthood. He preaches retreats and recollections regularly for priests and seminarians, takes his own clergy on pilgrimages, and conducts frequent meetings in person and online with his clergy to listen to them and keep them informed.
He is likewise someone to whom vocation directors love to bring young men, because he invariably inspires them with a love for the priesthood. His excellence as a formator was recognized by the Vatican as he was sent as an apostolic visitor for seminaries in trouble in both Ireland and Rome.
Second, he is a great preacher who has created a very high bar for priests everywhere. He’s always eloquent, no matter how short or long the address. His homilies are crisp and succinct, attracting people to Christ, getting to the heart of the matter, and relating the Gospel to human life.
His rector’s conferences at the Pontifical North American College, which I was privileged to hear live, were all 45-minute masterpieces that put on full display the power of the Gospel preached with conviction. They’re able to be read in Priests for the Third Millennium. He is the most eloquent English-speaking preacher since Archbishop Fulton Sheen.
Third, he is likewise a great communicator out of the pulpit. He’s one of the few bishops comfortable on live television and has become the de facto spokesman for the Church in the United States, communicating what Catholics really hold and believe to the multitudes, including on hot-button issues like gender confusion, contraception, abortion, or same-sex marriage.
Fourth, he is a renowned phone apostle. While some leaders send emails or texts, his preferred method of communication is the phone call. He calls bishops, priests, religious and lay people for birthdays, anniversaries, health issues, the death of loved ones, to check in after major life changes, and many other occasions.
When priests tell him about families in need, he calls them, too. Many people close to me have told me that they were shocked to get a call from the cardinal archbishop of New York to ask how they or family members were doing. Despite the enormity of his office, such personal care shows his priestly heart. He’s also similarly exemplary with short handwritten notes.
Fifth, he is a brilliant teacher and leader. Because of his outsized personality, humor and joviality, some might miss his towering intellect, but he is a superb Catholic historian who is able to recognize not just the moment of history but also its larger context. He has often joked about his omnivorous appetite, but this beloved seminary and university professor is a more voracious reader than eater. When the occasion warrants, he takes the bushel basket off his erudition.
Sixth, as a leader, he is very good at delegating. He trusts those he appoints around him to do their jobs. He defends them when unjustly criticized. Many Church leaders are micromanagers, and things around them move very slowly. Cardinal Dolan delegates and that’s one of the reasons why he’s able to be effective in the multitasking that his position requires.
Seventh, in New York, he’ll be remembered for having the courage to confront the issues of parishes and parish schools that can no longer support themselves and to look for new ideas that could bring vitality. He acted on the ideas predecessors had talked about with regard to merging the formation of seminarians from New York, Brooklyn and Rockville Centre.
Eighth, he sets a tone calling people to the best. I had the privilege to be a seminarian trained by him at the Pontifical North American College. He led primarily by setting high expectations, not by rigidly enforcing rules, because he wanted us to interiorize and desire what we were supposed to do.
At first, I didn’t understand his virtue-based rather than duty-based approach. As I matured, I did. He has brought that form of governance to the episcopacy. Some who prefer bishops to be strict disciplinarians can be disappointed, but his governing style is ultimately based on the Lord’s advice to focus more on cultivating the wheat than eradicating the weeds. It changed me much for the better.
Ninth, he is great with women religious throughout the archdiocese, surprising them on their feast days, or regularly coming for Mass, dinner and conversation, and in other ways trying to show his care and closeness. He knows their vocations are essential for the Church and he treats them with the gratitude he has always shown toward the sisters who taught him the faith.
Tenth, he is a leader among his fellow bishops and frequent counselor. His 2010 election as president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, to follow the strong leadership of Cardinal Francis George, shows the high esteem with which his fellow bishops regard him. He was chosen in a historically unprecedented way despite normal protocol and then was overwhelmingly embraced by the body of bishops as their leader for the next three years.
Eleventh, he is a consummate engager. He’s known — and in some circles, criticized — for having accepted President Trump’s invitation to give the invocation at his inaugurations or serve on presidential commissions. But it’s too bad Presidents Obama and Biden didn’t invite him.
He has friendships with prominent political figures of both parties, because he is able to connect and engage them on various levels without ever forgetting who or Whose he is. He is beloved by Jews for his sincere friendship and concern. With non-Catholics, too, he has become not just America’s pastor but America’s bishop.
Finally, like every bishop should, he very much has the mind and the heart of a missionary. In New York, he would receive and help bishops from missionary dioceses all over the world.
Through his leadership of the boards of The Pontifical Mission Society and the Catholic Near East Welfare Agency, as well as through his service as chairman of Catholic Relief Services, he has helped bring the generosity, solidarity and support of American Catholics all across the globe, to the Holy Land, to Ukraine, to Africa, Asia, South America and the Caribbean.
Despite all of these traits, it is unfortunate that he never became the chief papal adviser on things affecting the Church in the United States. He is the quintessential American Catholic and, due to his work at the nunciature and time as rector of a national seminary, he knows the Church in the US probably better than anyone.
Just as Pope Francis unfortunately never really understood the Church in the U.S., so he never adequately appreciated Cardinal Dolan and his enormous talents and love for the universal Church.
But what was the national and international Church’s loss was the archdiocese’s gain, insofar as he was in the archdiocese much more than his predecessors and he got around.
While Sunday mornings were at St. Patrick’s, Saturday nights and generally Sunday afternoons and evenings were spent doing pastoral visits, anniversary celebrations, confirmations and similar ceremonies at other parishes. During weekdays, after scores of appointments and meetings, he would often say Yes to multiple outside engagements on the same night, going from one to the next, trying to honor the request of as many as possible.
Archbishop-designate Hicks has some giant and unenviable shoes to fill. But I’m sure first in line offering to help him will be the ever-joyful and uber-capable disciple and apostle Timothy Michael Cardinal Dolan.