VATICAN CITY — Pope Leo XIV on Thursday made his most important U.S. appointment to date, naming a fellow Chicagoan as the next archbishop of New York to lead one of the biggest U.S. archdioceses as it navigates relations with the Trump administration and its immigration crackdown.

Earlier on Thursday, Dolan introduced the 58-year-old Hicks at a news conference at St. Patrick's, saying, "St. Nicholas has left us an early Christmas gift in the appointment by Pope Leo XIV of our new archbishop, Ronald Hicks."

Overall, the document reflects an effort to provide greater legal certainty, transparency, and procedural order to labor relations within the Vatican, in line with the recent reform initiated by Pope Leo XIV to strengthen the protection of workers and promote a culture of conciliation before resorting to legal conflict.

Mark Pope joined a short list with UK basketball's win over Rick Pitino and St. John's. Pope is the third ex-Pitino mentee to beat his former coach.

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.

Pope Leo on Friday named Bishop Richard Moth as the new Archbishop of Westminster, the most prominent Catholic figure in England and Wales.

The appointment of Bishop Ronald A. Hicks is expected to bring a markedly different leadership style to New York’s archdiocese.

Pope Leo XIV says peace is not only possible but necessary. In his first peace message issued Thursday, Leo blasted the “irrationality” of nuclear deterrence and the weaponization of faith in modern political discourse.