Bishop Ronald Hicks has been an acolyte of Chicago Cardinal Blase Cupich, and is one of the pope's first major U.S. appointments since being elected as worldwide leader of the Catholic church following the death of Pope Francis.

Pope Leo XIV has appointed Bishop Richard Moth of Arundel and Brighton, who was born in Zambia and came to the United Kingdom at the age of 2, as the 12th archbishop of Westminster and leader of the Catholic Church of England and Wales.

For the world's 1.4 billion Catholics and for millions of other people as well, the Catholic Church's 2025 was primarily about the death of Pope Francis and the election of Pope Leo XIV.

Pope Leo is replacing pro–Trump Cardinal Timothy Dolan as New York’s archbishop in a major shake-up of the Catholic Church in the U.S. The first-ever American pope has accepted the resignation of Dolan, a prominent figure known for engaging in culture wars, and has appointed the relatively unknown Illinois-based Bishop Ronald Hicks in his place.

Pope Leo XIV tapped Bishop Richard Moth, 67, to replace the retiring Cardinal Vincent Nichols, 80, as the London-based archbishop of the largest British diocese in terms of Catholic population and priests.

The pontiff had barely stepped onto the loggia wearing the mozzetta and papal stole before social media was ablaze with traditionalists claiming "we're so back."

Pope Leo has appointed Bishop Ronald Hicks to replace Cardinal Timothy Dolan, a friend of President Donald Trump who has served in the position since 2009, as New York’s newest archbishop, a major shake-up in the country’s Catholic leadership that appears to continue the pontiff’s pushback against Trump’s aggressive immigration crackdown.