Commie Mayor Breaks 87-Year HISTORIC Ritual

A two-block walk in Midtown became a political Rorschach test for how New York treats faith, tradition, and the millions who still take both personally.

Quick Take

Mayor Zohran Mamdani skipped the installation Mass of the new Archbishop of New York at St. Patrick’s Cathedral on Feb. 9, 2026, breaking a near-century tradition.
Archbishop Ronald Hicks, a 58-year-old Chicago native, stepped into the role after Cardinal Timothy Dolan’s retirement, emphasizing collaboration “for the common good.”
Mamdani attended an interfaith breakfast at the New York Public Library that morning and later offered public congratulations by social media, promising partnership.
Critics framed the absence as a deliberate snub of roughly 2.5 million city Catholics; the mayor framed it as scheduling and pledged to meet soon.

The day New York’s civic choreography changed at St. Patrick’s

Feb. 9 carried two stages and one obvious question. St. Patrick’s Cathedral hosted the installation of Archbishop Ronald Hicks, while Mayor Zohran Mamdani spent the morning at an interfaith breakfast at the New York Public Library and later held a weather-related press event. The geography matters: the venues sit within a short walk. The symbolism matters more: recent mayors, Catholic or not, treated an archbishop’s installation as part of the city’s official respect.

Mamdani’s absence landed harder because it arrived early in his tenure, barely a month into the job, when every gesture gets read as a governing philosophy. The story wasn’t that a politician missed a church event; it was that he skipped the church event New York politicians almost never skip. The tradition traces at least to 1939, when Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia attended Archbishop Francis Spellman’s ceremony, setting a civic expectation that outlived generations and party labels.

What Archbishop Hicks represents to the city’s Catholic infrastructure

New York’s archbishop is not a mascot; the office sits atop a sprawling religious and civic footprint across Manhattan, the Bronx, and Staten Island. Hicks arrived as the 11th Archbishop of New York after Pope Francis accepted Cardinal Dolan’s resignation upon reaching the mandatory retirement age of 75. The installation Mass included symbolic transitions, including the handoff of pastoral authority. Hicks’ early public posture emphasized a “missionary” church and partnerships that touch real municipal concerns.

That posture matters because New York’s Catholic institutions operate where politics gets concrete: shelters, schools, hospitals, food programs, and neighborhood parishes that still function like informal community boards. When a mayor signals distance, even unintentionally, it can chill cooperation that doesn’t show up in headline budgets but does show up in everyday services. Hicks, to his credit, kept his language focused on collaboration rather than grievance, even while acknowledging differences that will inevitably arise.

Mamdani’s interfaith message, and the omission that fueled the backlash

Mamdani’s defenders point to his interfaith breakfast as evidence of inclusion. He quoted scripture, highlighted faith leaders, and framed the city as a pluralistic mosaic. The problem critics seized on was not the breakfast itself, but what the program did not do: it did not prominently recognize the archbishop’s installation taking place hours later, and reports noted that Catholic clergy did not speak during the main program. For many Catholics, omission reads like a decision.

Mamdani later posted congratulations to Hicks and expressed a desire to collaborate on human dignity and shared goals. The tweet helped, but it also set up the central political issue: social media can acknowledge, but it can’t substitute for presence. Conservative common sense treats certain civic rituals as low-cost, high-return acts of respect. When a mayor declines, he spends political capital and receives little in return except suspicion about motives he may not even hold.

The conservative read: tradition is not nostalgia, it’s civic maintenance

Critics, including the Catholic League, called the skip wrong and rude and portrayed it as part of a pattern of “stiffing” Catholics. Former aides to past mayors criticized the decision as a missed opportunity to serve all segments of the city. Those claims deserve careful handling: accusations of animus require evidence, and scheduling conflicts can be real. Still, the strength of the criticism rests on the simplest facts: invitation extended, tradition established, proximity obvious.

American conservative values tend to elevate institutions that stabilize society: churches, families, neighborhood networks, and the etiquette that keeps rival groups in the same room. Mayors attend installations for the same reason they attend police funerals or synagogue commemorations: presence signals that the city sees its people, even when leaders disagree on policy. When a progressive mayor breaks the script this early, skeptics assume the break is ideological until proven otherwise.

What happens next: one meeting can close the loop, or deepen it

On Feb. 10, Mamdani dismissed the uproar to reporters and said he looked forward to meeting Hicks, while an archdiocese spokesperson confirmed they had not yet spoken but expected contact soon. Hicks also sounded optimistic about working together. That combination suggests the controversy can end quickly if both sides prioritize the obvious: sit down, map shared priorities like housing stability and anti-poverty work, and establish a regular channel for the hard disagreements.

Mayor Mamdani Becomes First NYC Leader to Skip Archbishop Installation in Almost a Century
https://t.co/921u3V7iWZ

— Townhall Updates (@TownhallUpdates) February 10, 2026

The bigger lesson sits under the day’s optics. New York is too diverse to run on one faith, and too historically rooted to pretend faith communities don’t matter. A mayor can champion interfaith outreach and still honor long-standing civic rituals without surrendering policy views. If Mamdani wants the benefit of the doubt from Catholics and other tradition-minded voters, he will need to show respect in person, not merely in posts.