Modernist Takeover in New York as “Archbishop”-Designate Pledges Secular Agenda
The “Catholic News Agency” portal reports on December 18, 2025, about the appointment of Ronald Hicks as “archbishop”-designate of New York by Vatican usurper Leo XIV (Robert Prevost). The article highlights Hicks’ jocular remarks about sports and pizza, his background under modernist Chicago prelates like “Cardinal” Blase Cupich, and vague commitments to “healing” abuse survivors through financial settlements. The report emphasizes diversity, collaboration with non-Catholic leaders, and Hicks’ Spanish-language outreach, while omitting any reference to Catholic doctrine, sacraments, or the salvation of souls.
Trivialization of Episcopal Office Through Profane Priorities
The so-called “archbishop”-designate inaugurated his tenure with what he called his “first controversial statement”: declaring allegiance to a baseball team and pizza. This deliberate reduction of the episcopal office to cultural trivialities constitutes a sacrilege against the Apostolic Succession. The Church teaches that bishops are successores Apostolorum (successors of the Apostles), commanded by St. Paul to “preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, entreat, rebuke in all patience and doctrine” (2 Timothy 4:2). Pius XI’s encyclical Ad Catholici Sacerdotii condemns such worldliness: “The priest is… a mediator between God and man; he must therefore be completely detached from the spirit of the world”. Hicks’ focus on sports and cuisine signals adherence to the conciliar sect’s anthropocentric religion, where earthly concerns eclipse supernatural realities.
Formation in the Chicago Modernist School
Hicks explicitly credits his formation to notorious modernists including Joseph Bernardin (architect of the “seamless garment” heresy) and Francis George (who implemented the Novus Ordo destruction). Most damning is his mentorship under Cupich – the “cardinal” who declared abortion, homosexuality, and immigration as “equally important” issues. This lineage confirms Hicks as a product of what St. Pius X condemned in Pascendi Dominici Gregis: “The Modernist… does not deny, but maintains, affirms… all the errors of Protestantism” (#39). The article’s boast about Hicks’ “missionary zeal to catechize” rings hollow when his theological pedigree stems from the very modernists who dismantled catechesis. As the Syllabus of Pius IX declares: “Protestantism is nothing more than another form of the same true Christian religion” (Error #18) – a heresy embodied in Hicks’ acceptance speech.
Silence on Doctrine, Promotion of Naturalism
Nowhere does Hicks mention:
- The Most Holy Sacrifice of the Mass
- Dogmatic truths defined by Councils
- The necessity of conversion for salvation
- Mortal sin or Hell
Instead, he promises collaboration with “faith leaders and civic leaders” – code for the ecumenical apostasy condemned by Pius XI: “This pernicious error is crept in, that fraternal union… is possible between Christian and non-Christian” (Mortalium Animos). His Spanish-language pandering continues the conciliar sect’s ethnic division of Catholicism, violating the Church’s universal nature affirmed in Quas Primas: “His kingdom… encompasses all non-Christians, so that most truly the entire human race is subject to the authority of Jesus Christ”. The $300 million abuse settlement becomes a substitute for sacramental penance, reducing justice to financial transactions – a Marxist distortion Pius XI condemned in Divini Redemptoris.
Theological Vacuum and Pastoral Deception
Hicks’ final claim to “love Jesus with my mind, heart, and soul” constitutes spiritual fraud when divorced from doctrinal content. As St. Pius X warned: “The Modernist… makes of conscience the foundation of religion” (Lamentabili Sane, #22). Authentic Catholic faith requires submission to defined dogmas, not subjective “relationship.” The article’s omission of Hicks’ stance on abortion, homosexuality, or the Traditional Mass speaks volumes – his mentors Cupich and Dolan have consistently undermined these truths. This appointment confirms Leo XIV’s pattern of selecting prelates who advance the conciliar revolution described by Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre as “the auto-demolition of the Church”.
Omission of Supernatural Realities: A Damning Silence
The gravest indictment emerges from what the article and Hicks omit entirely:
- No mention of the Four Last Things (Death, Judgment, Heaven, Hell)
- No call to repentance or sacramental confession
- No reference to Mary as Mediatrix or the saints
- No distinction between the Catholic Church and false religions
This naturalistic focus fulfills Pius IX’s condemnation: “Human reason… is the sole arbiter of truth and falsehood” (Syllabus, Error #3). The “pastoral approach” becomes apostasy when divorced from doctrine, as the Holy Office decreed in 1949: “No one is saved… who, knowing the Church to have been divinely established by Christ, nevertheless refuses to submit to the Church” (Letter to Cushing). Hicks’ appointment continues the conciliar sect’s program to replace Catholicism with universalist humanism.
Source:
UPDATE: New York’s new archbishop-designate vows to ‘serve faithfully’ while remaining a Cubs fan (catholicnewsagency.com)
Date: 18.12.2025