NEW YORK (OSV News) — Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan, retired archbishop of New York, is the new co-chief chaplain of the New York Police Department, sharing the role with the Rev. A.R. Bernard of Brooklyn’s Christian Cultural Center, a nondenominational megachurch.
Police Commissioner Jessica S. Tisch welcomed the cardinal and Rev. Bernard, a prominent leader of the Black Church, in their new role at her “State of the NYPD” address the morning of Feb. 10. The cardinal’s successor, Archbishop Ronald A. Hicks, also attended the event.
“I want to thank some of our esteemed faith leaders here today, especially Cardinal Dolan and Reverend A.R. Bernard, and I want to welcome Archbishop Ronald Hicks to our great city,” Tisch said. “Archbishop, I am going to answer a few questions I imagine are on your mind, but you are probably too much of a gentleman to ask. Yes, as New Yorkers, we are as strange as we seem, and no, we are not all conscious of it.”
On Feb. 9, an NYPD news release said Tisch would officially announce the two churchmen as co-chief chaplains during her address the following day.
Referring to the Hebrew word “tzadik,” Tisch said, “In the Jewish tradition, it means a righteous person — someone whose life embodies the moral clarity, compassion and wisdom that our officers rely on in their hardest moments.”
“And I’ll admit, the idea came to me in an unexpected place while I was sitting at Mass. Don’t tell my rabbi! What followed was extraordinary,” said the commissioner, who is Jewish. “Not just one, but two leaders answered that call. These two men need no introduction, because for decades they have shaped the spiritual life of this city through leadership that reaches far beyond their congregations and their pulpits.”
She said it was her “distinct honor” to announce Cardinal Dolan and Rev. Bernard as co-chief chaplains. They will be installed at a ceremony at One Police Plaza Feb. 24.
“I hope to see many of you there, and their decision to serve this department speaks to something enduring between faith and policing and to the place this role has long held in the lives of the men and women who wear the shield,” Tisch said.
She asked all present to stand and join her in welcoming the cardinal and the Christian Cultural Center’s senior pastor to NYPD.
In an interview after the event, Cardinal Dolan told Buenas Noticias, the Archdiocese of New York’s Spanish-language digital news platform, what it means to him to be a chief chaplain of the NYPD. “Everything! I love the cops. I love this city. Any invitation to serve, a good priest jumps up to.”
Archbishop Hicks also spoke to Buenas Noticias afterward about what was his first NYPD event. He was installed as the archdiocese’s new shepherd during a Feb. 6 Mass at St. Patrick’s Cathedral.
“This is my first event here with the police and all the government officials,” he said in Spanish. He said it was a pleasure to meet them, “recognize the good work” they’re doing and “seek ways to collaborate and grow in a society that is fair and peaceful for all.”
Author Fernanda Pierorazio is editor of Buenas Noticias, the Spanish-language digital news platform of the Archdiocese of New York. This story was first published by Buena Noticias and The Good Newsroom, the English-language digital news platform, and distributed in partnership with OSV News.
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