This hat’s for you, New York!

Timothy Cardinal Dolan tipped his new red biretta to New Yorkers yesterday morning during a special prayer service at St. Patrick’s Cathedral meant to celebrate his elevation a week ago to cardinal.

The newly crowned prince of the Catholic Church thanked the Big Apple flock for coming together to welcome a St. Louis native, “who arrived three years ago as a rookie, not even aware of the difference between corned beef and pastrami.”

“This is an honor for all of New York. And that’s why I refuse to wear those red socks, lest my loyalties be thought to be elsewhere,” Dolan said in a reference to the Yankees’ archrival Boston Red Sox.

Dolan then told the celebrants to join him at the Sheraton Hotel, where he offered to buy them lunch.