Archbishop Ronald Hicks seems determined to “win over New Yorkers” by talking sports rather than preaching sainthood. And to embarrass his office with his effeminate attempts at being “hip.”
In a post-championship Mass homily at St. Patrick’s Cathedral this past Sunday, Hicks proudly announced, “Even though I’m new to New York, I caught the Knicks fever. I caught the Knicks’ passion … and last night, as the eleventh archbishop … I sat with my number 11 jersey on. I watched every minute until victory.”
Catholics on social media were repulsed by the spectacle. Some drew attention to Hick’s beta male manner of speaking. Others highlighted the “soy face” he made during a celebration with Muslim socialist mayor Zohran Mamdani.
Prior to the NBA Finals, Hicks recorded a video with San Antonio Bishop Gustavo Garcia-Siller. The two held a scripted “debate” over which team (the Knicks or the Spurs) God was rooting for. It looked about as natural as a high school play.
Hicks has had other cringeworthy moments during his short tenure as Archbishop of New York, a position that traditionally comes with a cardinal’s hat.
Earlier this year, Hicks gleefully told reporters that he just “has to” eat New York-style pizza on Super Bowl Sunday.
This was not a case of “the lady doth protest too much” but rather “the soy boy tries too hard.” 1
Even Cardinal Dolan’s rah-rah days were more dignified than Hicks’ performance. But Blasé Cupich’s obsequious protégé was intent on laying it on thick with his new flock: “I’m a Cubs fan … I love deep-dish pizza,” he announced, before confessing to “loving [New York’s] pizza … a lot.”
A LifeSiteNews article published at the time noted that Hicks was being “far too hokey for the Big Apple.” Young Catholic men want holy priests who will inspire sacrifice, not bishops “yucking it up” like ordinary sports fans.
Other critics noted that Catholics should be reminded of penance and the Passion of Christ during Lent, yet Hicks was busy boasting about munching on cheesy-bread and rooting for sports teams.
Post-conciliar churchmen of the world
Hicks’s desperate, pizza-soaked episcopacy is unfortunately just one example of the “folksy” style adopted by some post-Vatican II clergy.
In February 2026, Archbishop Paul Etienne of Seattle and Archbishop Richard Henning of Boston bet $500 on the Super Bowl — not for self-interest, they said, but for charity and “unity” — with the losing diocese donating to Catholic charities for immigrants. EWTN even did a feature on the wager, treating it like a friendly tradition.
The Dispatch
True, there is a place for sports in Catholic outreach, but the devil is in the demeanor.
Cheering with the crowd is not the same as leading souls above the crowd. When clergy don jerseys and quip about pizza, the Cross fades to the couch, and the question becomes whether we want our shepherds fulfilling their higher call or playing fan-club president.
Sadly, these highly inappropriate antics have not been limited to the sports arena. The advent of social media has become a curse on the dignity of the office.
One of the most notable — and arguably cringiest instances — has to be Philippine Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle’s rendition of the John Lennon communist anthem “Imagine,” which he performed at the Concert of the Millennium in 2019. This was not a mere faux pas but seemingly part of a pattern, as Tagle has also appeared “dancing” at other youth events while becoming a minor TikTok “celebrity.”
There is also Fr. Matt Lowry, who is known as “The Dancing TikTok Priest.” Lowry said in an interview, “I’m not afraid to be goofy for the Lord.”
This is not the spiritual example we want for our young men, who are already fighting against a culture that seeks to have them emasculated.
No discussion of clergy and prelates trying too hard to be relatable would be complete without mentioning the eternal flip-flopper and alleged “conservative,” Bishop Robert Barron.
Barron has turned engagement with pop culture, Hollywood, and hobnobbing with celebrities into an “apostolate.” But when the time came to man up and defend Carrie Prejean Boller, or give Ben Shapiro the true Gospel, he found himself sans a spine. All this, mind you, while gushing over Bob Dylan on social media.
The list goes on: Fr. Matthieu Jasseron, Fr. David Michael Moses, Fr. Guilherme Peixoto (“DJ Padre Guilherme”), and many more are harming the dignity of the priestly office.
Sainthood is countercultural
Pre-conciliar clergy set a markedly different tone. Past generations of priests and bishops assumed a countercultural role as opposed to a pop-culture one.
One can hardly imagine a St. Pius X or St. Thomas Aquinas discussing nachos at the stadium. The image of Philip Neri or St. Jean Vianney pining for a game of basketball is equally absurd. Traditional prelates wore clerical clothing and preached about the Cross, not the box score. By all accounts, earlier clergy were content to live for truths above trends, not bid for popularity by appeasing their parishioners with flattering speech about their preferred sports team.
Indeed, in the early 1900s, Pope St. Pius X once famously hosted Vatican gymnasts and quipped, “we end in Paradise” — but he did not then publish highlight reels in L’Osservatore Romano. As the LifeSiteNews article put it, Catholics need “leaders who are counter-witnesses to the world and culture around them. They want men who will speak about penance and mortification and heavenly things so they will be inspired to give up earthly pleasures.”
Catholics everywhere should pray that their clergy become masculine soldiers ready to resist the diabolical modern culture until death and bloodshed. The faithful, especially our young men, do not need Knicks fever; they need the fervor of the Catholic faith.
- “Soy boy” is an internet slang term used as a pejorative to describe men perceived as weak, effeminate, or lacking traditional masculine traits. It is frequently used in online communities as an insult, often directed at liberal or left-wing men. ↩︎
