Open Letter to the Priests and Pastors of the Diocese of Charlotte, North Carolina, USA

"A Priest of Jesus Christ" has issued a ringing call to the Clergy of the Diocese of Charlotte to resist the unjust and illegal orders of  Bishop Martin.

From Rorate Cæli

January 15th, 2026

Feast of Our Lady of Prompt Succor

To my dear Brothers in the Vineyard of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ,

Grace and peace to you in this holy Season of the Nativity of Our Lord.

With pastoral concern and fraternal affection, I write to you at a moment of genuine trial for the Church, to recall to your hearts the true nature of that obedience which must ever animate the soul of the priest. You are called, above all, to obedience to Christ Himself, in imitation of His perfect obedience to the Father, who “humbled Himself, becoming obedient unto death, even death on a Cross.” Such obedience is never without cost; yet it is always fruitful, both in this life and in the life to come. Therefore, do not shrink from the Cross that obedience may place upon your shoulders.

Obedience, rightly understood, is the submission of the will—and, when necessary, even of one’s own comfort and security—to the demands of Truth and to the Will of God. For the ordained shepherd, this obedience is expressed, first, in fidelity to the doctrine, discipline, and worship of Holy Mother Church, and to the Roman Pontiff, who serves as the Vicar of Christ on earth; and second, in filial cooperation with one’s diocesan Bishop, the chief shepherd to whom the care of the local Church has been entrusted.

Yet there is also, in a real and profoundly evangelical sense, a further obedience required of you: an obedience to the flock entrusted to your care. This is not an obedience of subservience, but one of paternal charity—akin to the attentiveness of a father who cannot ignore the cries of his children. Flowing from charity, this obedience calls for tenderness, vigilance, and sacrifice. It demands that you be willing to set aside personal ease in order to secure the spiritual good of those whom Divine Providence has placed under your care, and that you be prepared to stand between them and whatever would harm their souls.

It is precisely here that I must speak with clarity and urgency. The struggle now confronting you is not primarily a trial directed against yourselves, but against the faithful entrusted to you. There is at work a Modernist spirit which, under the guise of “renewal” or “uniformity,” brings about an erosion of the faith, hope, and charity abiding within your flock—those very theological virtues that were infused into the souls of your sheep by Christ Himself and ordered toward a life rich in good works pleasing to God.

This is not a moment which pastors should liken to the personal sufferings endured by saints under unjust suspicion or misunderstanding. Rather, it is a moment in which the faithful themselves are at risk of being deprived of what the Church has always recognized as their spiritual patrimony. When unlawful or unjust demands are complied with, it is not the shepherd who bears the principal wound, but the sheep, for such compliance is an opening of the gate to confusion and harm, to wolves, within the sheepfold.

In one particularly grave manifestation of this danger, there are efforts to obstruct the faithful from approaching the Banquet of Eternal Life in the manner long cherished and permitted by Holy Mother Church: kneeling in reverence at the altar rail, at that sacred threshold where Heaven and earth meet, and where Christ the Good Shepherd descends to feed His flock with His own most Sacred Flesh.

I exhort you: do not place yourselves as obstacles in their path. You know well that no priest may refuse Holy Communion to a Catholic solely on the grounds that he or she kneels at the altar rail. The general rule in the Church’s law is that Catholics may receive Catholic sacraments. The denial of a sacrament is only possible when the law permits such a denial, and this should always be strictly interpreted. Canon law gives clear guidelines on those instances when a priest may deny Holy Communion. Merely kneeling to receive Holy Communion is in no way one of those situations!

Therefore, do not suggest, even implicitly, that such a denial is within your authority. Rather, direct your firmness where it truly belongs. Stand before those who would impose such restrictions on your sheep, and state, calmly and resolutely, that you cannot cooperate in measures that deprive the faithful of what is theirs by right and by justice.

Should such fidelity to your pastoral duty draw upon you misunderstanding, marginalization, or suffering, give thanks to God that He has judged you worthy to share, in some small measure, in the Cross of His Son. Unite these trials to the sufferings of our Blessed Redeemer, whose immeasurable love for man led Him to embrace the cruelest sufferings in order to obtain for us the immense benefits of salvation.

With fraternal esteem, I remain…

Your brother,

A Priest of Jesus Christ