Archbishop Ronald Hicks installed as leader of Archdiocese of New York

Throughout his installation Mass on Friday as the new leader of the Archdiocese of New York, Archbishop Ronald Hicks made a statement about Latinos.

He began his homily before a congregation of more than 2,000 people, including Catholic cardinals, bishops and hundreds of priests, at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Manhattan speaking in Spanish. He then continued in English.

To read the first Scripture of the Mass, in Spanish, he chose a former orphan who had been discarded in a trash dump in El Salvador as a baby and rescued by strangers. The man, Samuel Jimenez, eventually ended up in an orphanage Hicks ran during five years as a missionary priest in El Salvador. Jimenez later emigrated to the United States and went on to college in Chicago, the archdiocese said.

Hicks, 58, who is fluent in Spanish, displayed echoes of Pope Francis, speaking during his homily of a "church that goes out to the periphery."

"This is a call to be a missionary church, not a country club," Hicks said. "A club exists to serve its members. The church exists, on the other hand, to go out and serve all people."

He called for "a church that shows respect for all, building unity across cultures and generations."

In a nearly two-hour ceremony replete with centuries-old rituals, the afternoon Mass began with Hicks knocking three times on the main doors to the majestic cathedral on Fifth Avenue. The doors then opened and Hicks entered as the faithful stood and applauded.

Hicks is the first new archbishop of the archdiocese in nearly 17 years. He succeeds Cardinal Timothy Dolan, who submitted his mandatory letter of retirement a year ago when he turned 75.

Alice Hogan, a social worker, said she traveled to the ceremony from her home in Arlington, Virginia, because she had worked with Hicks in Latin America years ago.

"I think it’s amazing," she said of Hicks’s elevation to lead one of the most prominent Roman Catholic archdioceses in the nation. "He’s a really joyful person, so I think it’s going to be good for them."

"He wants to be in partnership with the community, not in charge of, but along with," she said.

Hicks was serving as bishop of Joliet, Illinois, when Pope Leo XIV, the first U.S. pontiff, elevated him to the New York post. Hicks has said he grew up about 14 blocks from Leo’s childhood home in Chicago.

Leo is emerging as a "unifier" in the Catholic Church and Hicks may follow that model, according to analysts. While both generally ascribe to Francis’s focus on the poor, the environment and social justice, they may also seek to mend relations with more conservative Catholics who clashed with Francis.

Leo and many Catholic bishops in the United States have started to challenge President Donald Trump’s mass deportation campaign. Hicks did not address that issue directly in his homily but did speak of a church serving the forgotten.

"We exist to follow Jesus, who fed the hungry, healed those ill in body and spirit, rejected hatred and proclaimed love," he said.