Pope Leo XIV on Thursday appointed Bishop Ronald Hicks as the next archbishop of New York amid Cardinal Timothy Dolan's retirement.

Hicks, who is from Chicago like Leo, is the current bishop of Joliet, Ill., according to the Associated Press.

Dolan's resignation was submitted in February, as required when he turned 75, but the Vatican often waits to make important leadership changes in dioceses if there is abuse litigation or other governance matters that need to be resolved by the outgoing bishop.

Last week, Dolan finalized a plan to create a $300 million fund to compensate victims of sexual abuse who had sued the archdiocese.

The New York archdiocese is among the largest in the U.S., serving about 2.5 million Catholics in Manhattan, the Bronx, and Staten Island in New York City, and seven counties to the north.

Hicks was a parish priest in Chicago and dean of training at Mundelein Seminary before Chicago Cardinal Blase Cupich made him vicar general of the archdiocese in 2015. In 2018, Hicks was made an auxiliary bishop, and in 2020, Pope Francis named him bishop of Joliet, where he served around 520,000 Catholics in seven counties.

Hicks endorsed a special message from the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops in November that condemned the Trump administration’s immigration raids.

Hicks said the message “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.”