Cardinal Dolan, Rev. A.R. Bernard sworn in as NYPD co-chief chaplains

The NYPD has two new spiritual shepherds.

Timothy Cardinal Dolan and Rev. A.R. Bernard were named department co-chief chaplains Tuesday during a special ceremony at Police Headquarters.

The two faith leaders will take on the role left vacant after the passing of Rabbi Alvin Kass, considered the spiritual heart of the NYPD, in October. Kass’ daughter, Sarah, was on hand to watch the two clerics fill the shoes her father left behind.

“I guess I have two badges now,” Dolan joked to a packed auditorium of elected officials and faith leaders as Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch and Mayor Mamdani looked on. “This venerable NYPD shield and the cross of Christ.”

Dolan, who kissed his new NYPD badge after receiving it from Tisch, said he would wear both badges over his heart.

“That’s because my heart now belongs to all of you,” Dolan told the audience.

Cardinal Dolan submitted his resignation as head of the New York Archdiocese last February after reaching the mandatory retirement age of 75.

In December, Pope Leo appointed Bishop Ronald Hicks of Joliet, Ill., to succeed Dolan as archbishop of New York and head the most influential archdiocese in the U.S.

Mayor Mamdani was criticized for being a no-show when Hicks was installed as archbishop last month, but the mayor was front and center on the podium as Dolan and Bernard were made NYPD co-chief chaplains.

“So often when New Yorkers turn to someone for clarity and comfort, they are not turning to their elected officials. They are turning to their faith leaders, those that provide them with guidance and grace,” Mamdani said. “(The police) need that guidance more than most because of the expectations that are placed upon each of them; put on them from the families that they keep safe and their own families that they provide for.”

“Expectation is a gift, but it can also feel like a burden,” he said. “But it was never meant to be carried on one set of shoulders.”

Tisch called the swearing-in a “historic day for our department and city” and the NYPD chaplains, who provide emotional and spiritual support when cops are faced with a crisis, the “moral conscience of the NYPD.”

The NYPD Chaplains Unit, which Dolan and Bernard will now be the co-leaders of, has religious leaders from a wide range of faiths to help officers in need.

“Since 1906, this department committed itself to ensure that the men and women that served here had guidance when the job demanded it the most,” Tisch said as she congratulated the two religious leaders. “Since then, our Chaplains Unit has served alongside our officers, making sure that the weight of this work was never theirs to carry alone, helping them find their better angels, and remember the calling at the heart of this noble profession.”

Bernard, who runs the Christian Cultural Center in Starrett City, Brooklyn, with a membership of over 37,000 people, said being an NYPD chaplain was a calling in and of itself.

“The men and women of this department carry extraordinary weight — moral, emotional and often spiritual,” Bernard explained. “They bear that weight quietly at great personal cost. I believe that spiritual health and moral clarity are not luxuries in policing. They are necessities.”

“Through the moments of pressure, fatigue, danger and grief, what sustains an officer is not only training and policies, but character, conscience and a grounded sense of purpose,” he said. “My commitment is to help strengthen those inner resources, to be a steady, trusted presence, in times of both crisis and reflection.”