In Charlotte, ‘No big changes for a year?’
What happens after the national spotlight on Bishop Michael Martin?
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As new priestly assignments come out this spring in dioceses across the U.S., one U.S. bishop offered advice to his priests about taking on leadership in a new parish, among new people.
“No big changes for a year,” the bishop wrote in a May 28 email, as he gave advice to new pastors in his diocese.
Instead of changing things right away, the bishop urged new pastors to “get to know staff,” to “build community” with fellow priests at the parish, and to work with priests and staff “to pray and lead together.”
Still, while he urged no big shifts in the first year of a new pastor’s leadership, he told his priests they might look for areas eventually in need of reform.
“Do not be afraid to identify areas in need of change,” the bishop wrote. But he said, “do [that] with love,” and only “after listening/observing.”
“When you bring change, work with staff and involve parish,” he counseled.
The prelate offering that advice to priests was Bishop Michael Martin of Charlotte, North Carolina.
Martin wrote the email, obtained by The Pillar, on the first anniversary of his leadership in the Charlotte diocese, one year after he was consecrated to the episcopate and installed as western North Carolina’s fifth diocesan bishop.
His email included more counsel to new pastors assessing the needs of their parish: “Even the best of efforts will result in some resistance to change.”
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For Martin, that last bit of advice might have been the most hard won — and seem in Charlotte the most ironic.
The bishop has faced in the last week a firestorm of criticism, both in his diocese and among Catholics across the nation, after he promulgated an interpretation of Traditionis custodes widely panned as unnecessarily draconian, and after the leak of a set of proposed liturgical policy initiatives which would seem to violate the Vatican’s own liturgical instructions, and regulate even the private prayer of priests and the headwear of women cantors.
As Catholics fulminated over those things, The Pillar reported that the Vatican — specially, the pontiff-formerly-known-as-Cardinal-Prevost — had instructed Martin last month to slow his plans for moving the diocese’s cathedral to a parish well outside his see city.
The prospect of his liturgy changes had been in the air during Martin’s first year, along with a set of reassignments met with some pushback, and the growing sense in the diocese that big changes might be coming in religious education, at the college seminary, and in Catholic schools.
Each of those issues seemed in Charlotte to exemplify an issue consistently noted within the diocese often over Martin’s first year — that the bishop has been perceived as autocratic, asynodal, and hasty about making decisions without sufficient consultation, or any consideration of the perspectives of his own presbyterate.
Anxiety about that prompted a much-circulated January open letter in the diocese, which many priests say is an accurate account of the situation, and then a consulting firm’s recognition that “speed of change” is an area “in need of improvement” in the diocese.
With all that underway, it is not clear that Martin’s Wednesday advice — not to change anything in the first year of a pastorate — was well-received by Charlotte’s presbyterate, as they dealt with both a national spotlight and the likely pastoral issues for their own people caused by the unfolding news of their new bishop’s own first year plans for change in the diocese.
According to some Catholics in the diocese, the ironic advice — coming without any acknowledgement of the broader situation in the diocese — seemed to suggest an insufficient self-awareness for fruitful leadership.
In Charlotte, even among Catholics who do not worship in the extraordinary form, the restrictions released last week, and an unwillingness even to consider asking for Vatican extensions, has struck some Catholics as unfeeling, indifferent, and hostile to the members of the Charlotte diocese who worship in the usus antiquior.
On the other hand, while Martin faced criticism, it is worth noting that the bishop did not actually promulgate the whole of his controversial text on the ordinary form of the Mass, and seemingly shelved it after consultation in his diocese — though he is expected to publish at least parts of it, including a controversial prohibition on the use of altar rails for the distribution of the Eucharist.
And to date, he has not actually given indication of pushing forward with the cathedral project the Vatican told him to slow down.
It is possible the bishop has taken a new perspective, even in the past week, about the notion of synodality and the nature of consultation in the leadership of a diocese. That might even prompt a rethink on some of the plans he now has in the works.
But if that is the case, Martin has not yet indicated as much with a statement on the events of the last week.
And all of that points for Martin to a major question: Even if he tries a new tack, can the bishop who seemingly jumped headlong into “first year changes” earn enough trust among his presbyterate to stabilize ecclesial life in the diocese?
After the leak of a document that seemed to cut deeply against the liturgical beliefs of his own priests, can a sense of fruitful pastoral collaboration be restored, or established for the first time?
Among Charlotte’s clergy, the open question is likely simple: What happens next?
There is speculation among some Catholics in the diocese that with diminished credibility in the diocese, Martin might be eventually transferred to another diocese, as ordinary or auxiliary, especially if friction with his priests and laity continues unabated. Mention is made in Charlotte of Bishop Martin Holley, the former Memphis ordinary, who in 2018 lost his diocese after an apostolic visitation that stemmed from charges of erratic and authoritarian leadership.
But there is no indication that such a visit is on the horizon, or under consideration, for Charlotte. And it is not clear that the bishop’s choices will be seen in Rome as evidence of any canonical delict, which might prompt a visitation with more alacrity.
Absent that possibility, the tensions in Charlotte may well fall out of the news cycle, leaving the Charlotte diocese led by a young bishop — Martin is 63 — who has begun with crisis, in his own first year.
From there, if the bishop has a chance at local regaining credibility, and restoring normalcy in his diocese, it might be found in another part of the email advice he wrote this week for new pastors:
“Realize,” he urged, “a call to love everyone God puts you in front of you as pastor… You will not please everyone, but you can love everyone even when it hurts.”
Martin has not, to date, pleased everyone in Charlotte. His own counsel might now suggest a leadership reset, evincing to his own people and priests a commitment to the pastoral call of love — including reconcilation.
Whether it will be enough remains to be seen.
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This cultural clash was bound to happen. Martin was formed in Baltimore in the 70s/80s when it was a bastion of liberal Catholicism. It's a very different flavor of Catholicism than the orthodoxy found in Charlotte. He may claim to understand NC cultre after being a chaplain at Duke for a dozen years, but that is a bubble of liberal elites, many from the Northeast. He would be much better received as an auxiliary in Baltimore and happier. Abp Lori should step in here to fix this mess.