Vatican City (AFP) - Pope Leo XIV has accepted the resignation of New York’s conservative Archbishop Timothy Dolan and named a little-known, pro-migrant bishop from his native Chicago to replace him, the Vatican said Thursday.

In a significant shift for the Catholic Church in the United States, Leo replaced Dolan, who stepped down after reaching the Church’s retirement age of 75, with Ronald Hicks, a 58-year-old bishop from Illinois.

The New York archdiocese is among the largest in the US and the pick ends months of speculation about who would follow Dolan, widely regarded as being close to US President Donald Trump.

This is the most important bishop appointment Leo has made since his election to head up the world’s Catholics in May and signals a desire to push back firmly on the US administration’s policies.

Hicks shares several similarities with Leo including outspoken solidarity with migrants at a time when Trump is ordering mass deportations and portraying migrants and refugees as criminals.

In November, the pope endorsed a rare statement from the US Conference of Catholic Bishops which heavily criticised the Trump administration’s zero-tolerance policies toward undocumented migrants.

He said the statement “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,” he said.

In an event at Manhattan’s St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Dolan said “I already love (Hicks) and appreciate him and trust him.”

“Is there sadness in my heart? Sure, because I love the Archdiocese in New York, that sadness is mitigated by the gift” of Hicks’s arrival.

Hicks quipped that he has the necessary diplomatic skills to manage the culinary and sporting rivalry between his native Chicago and New York.

“Potentially my first controversial statement I’m a Cubs fan, and I love deep-dish pizza,” he said.

“That said, I want you to know that I’m going to remain a loyal Cubs fan. However, I am going to start rooting for the New York sports teams, and I already love your pizza,” he said.

He noted that his childhood home was just 14 blocks from Leo’s, he said.

“In my 31 years of priesthood, I was formed in Chicago,” he said.

- ‘Great affinity’ -

Hicks spent five years of ministry in El Salvador in Central America, heading a church-run orphanage programme that operated across nine Latin American and Caribbean countries. Leo spent two decades in service in Peru.

The outgoing bishop of Joliet, Illinois, also served in several parishes in the Archdiocese of Chicago, the city where Leo was born – though the pair only met for the first time in 2024.

Dolan, a ruddy-faced extrovert with Irish-American roots, has served in New York since 2009.

A theological conservative fiercely opposed to abortion, Dolan sparked controversy in September by comparing the conservative political activist and Trump supporter Charlie Kirk to a “modern-day Saint Paul”.

- Abuse challenge -

Dolan oversaw the fallout from a major sexual abuse scandal in the diocese.

Just a couple of weeks ago, the archdiocese announced the creation of a $300 million fund to compensate victims of sexual abuse who had filed complaints against the Church.

At the time, Dolan said that a “series of very difficult financial decisions” were made, including layoffs within the archdiocese and a 10-percent reduction of its operating budget.

Hicks is no stranger to managing the fallout of the abuse scandal. The Joliet diocese he now leaves was criticised under his predecessors for its handling of pedophile priests.

The scandal was “something that is never going to be behind us”, Hicks told Vatican News.