Bishop Ronald Hicks will be walking into the heart of the Catholic Church’s lingering sex abuse scandal when he grabs the reigns of the Archdiocese of New York — and there are already questions over what tack he will take.
Advocates for the victims of Catholic clergy and lay staffers were worried about whether the 58-year-old Illinois bishop would follow through on a $300 million settlement negotiated under New York Archbishop Timothy Cardinal Dolan for some 1,300 child sex abuse victims.
“Cardinal Dolan has left Bishop Hicks with an archdiocese reeling and in free fall from the decades old cover up of clergy sexual abuse,” said attorney Mitchell Garabedian, who helped bring the clergy sex abuse scandal at the Archdiocese of Boston into the national spotlight more than two decades ago.
“Although I have settled childhood sexual abuse claims with the Diocese of Joliet, I have not had any direct dealings with Bishop Hicks,” Garabedian said. “Since Bishop Hicks has gained experience managing the problem of clergy sexual abuse in Diocese of Joliet, he will probably say the right things but do almost nothing to help survivors try to heal. Bishop Hicks is a company man.
“If he was not a company man then he would not be the next Archbishop.”
Dolan, who is retiring at the mandatory age of 75, has been cutting corners to come up with money for the settlement, slashing the archdiocese payroll by 10% and selling off church property, including the land under the the luxury Lotte New York Palace — one of the priciest pieces of real estate in its portfolio — to the hotel’s owner for a whopping $490 million.
Another $100 million would be raised from the sale of the former archdiocesan headquarters at the First Avenue and East 56th Street, with some of the proceeds from both sales also intended to pay off earlier loans, including for other settlements.
At his first public appearance with Dolan at St. Patrick’s Cathedral on Thursday, Hicks was asked about the financial burden he would face — and his answer fell short of soothing some victims’ advocates.
“I am committed to learning about the issues before our church, including the funds the archdiocese has set aside to help resolve sexual abuse claims,” he said.
“As a church, we can never rest in our efforts to prevent abuse, to protect children and to care for survivors,” Hicks added. “While this work is challenging, it’s difficult, it’s painful, I hope it will continue to help in the areas of accountability, transparency and healing.”
The Coalition for Just & Compassionate Compensation, an advocacy group for victims of the church sex scandal, wrote to Pope Leo XIV on Wednesday expressing concern that the change in leadership at the archdiocese could jeopardize the settlement negotiations.
“An announcement at this juncture — whether intentional or made without full appreciation of its impact — risks delaying, destabilizing, or undermining an active mediation process that is already underway and supported by concrete financial and institutional steps,” the letter said, referencing the pontiff’s appointment of Hicks as Dolan’s successor this week.
“For survivors, such disruption would not be procedural. It would be deeply personal and harmful.”
The answer remains uncertain for some, including Jeff Anderson, an attorney representing 300 victims.
“All the Archdiocese of New York and Cardinal Dolan have agreed to do is go into a process of mediation, and that process is underway,” Anderson noted. “There is no settlement. There are no terms of settlement that are even close to being reached.”
He said the church is “losing on the litigation side at least in many, so many, battles.”
“We’ll have to just see how it plays out, because today I can’t tell you,” Anderson said.
“While I don’t know him (Hicks) personally, I’m looking forward to working with him and anybody else in the Archdiocese to help bring some resolution to these survivors. So the fact there’s new blood coming in can’t hurt.”
— Additional reporting by Georgett Roberts
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