New York City Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch is naming Cardinal Timothy Dolan to co-lead the NYPD’s chaplain’s unit.
Dolan, who recently retired as archbishop of New York, will serve alongside Rev. A.R. Bernard, pastor and founder of the Christian Cultural Center in Brooklyn, according to a Feb. 9 press release from the archdiocese.
Tisch is expected to announce the appointment during her Feb. 10 “State of the NYPD” address.
“For more than a century, our Chaplains Unit has made sure that our officers never have to carry the tremendous weight of their work alone. They’ve helped officers find their better angels and remember the calling that lives at the heart of this work,” Tisch said in a statement.
Tisch, who is Jewish, said that when contemplating whom she might choose to fill the role, “one word kept coming to mind — ‘tzadik,’ a person of righteousness.”
“Cardinal Timothy Dolan and Rev. A.R. Bernard are two of the most righteous people this city has ever known,” she said. “They are two men of incredible faith whose lives and leadership embody the moral clarity, compassion, and wisdom our officers rely on in their hardest moments.”
Tisch commended both faith leaders for helping to “shape the spiritual life of this city through leadership that reaches far beyond their pulpits.”
“Their decision to serve the NYPD speaks to something enduring between faith and policing, and to the place the chief chaplain role has long held in the lives of the men and women who wear the shield,” she added.
Dolan and Bernard will replace longtime Chief Chaplain Rabbi Alvin Kass, who died in October 2025.
News of Dolan’s appointment comes days after the installation of New York City’s new archbishop, Ronald Hicks, on Feb. 6. Dolan’s resignation was accepted by Pope Leo XIV on Dec. 18, 2025.
