When Crisis PR Misses the Mark: A Satirical Look at the Diocese of Charlotte’s TLM Train Wreck

A PR Blunder for the Ages

I’ll admit it, as an attorney who’s been a Supreme Court clerk, an assistant attorney general, and beyond, I’m no stranger to watching PR disasters unfold. For me, it is the continuation of the forensic work I did as a chemical engineer, looking at fatal accidents and explosions. If you’ve watched gory police procedurals like Silent Witness or others, you know when the body is on the slab in the mortuary and they are figuring out how the murder was committed — that’s what this is like for me. Words and communications piece back like wound marks and bullet trails to tell me what’s going on.

Even with that sort of background, the Diocese of Charlotte’s handling of the Traditional Latin Mass cessation is leaving me slack-jawed. How could a situation dripping with such spiritual weight be met with such tone-deaf crisis management? It’s like watching someone try to fix a broken stained-glass window with duct tape and black plastic sheeting. I’m forced to wonder: if this is the “polished” PR response, how chaotic must things be behind closed doors for the crisis team to even be called in? Buckle up, because we’re about to unpack this mess—complete with satire, questions, and a hard look at what went wrong.

The Situation: From Bishop’s Letter to Leaked Standby Statements

Let’s freeze the frame on what’s happening in Charlotte. On Friday, May 23, 2025, Bishop Michael Martin dropped a bombshell letter announcing that, effective July 8, the Traditional Latin Mass (TLM) would be banned from parish churches in the Diocese of Charlotte, relegated instead to a single chapel in Mooresville—a former Protestant center, no less. The letter was ironically titled “Completing the Implementation of Traditiones Custodes”. My “favorite” part of it was that the timing of the letter, released on a Friday before a holiday weekend, was obviously known to be bad news. This tactic is so worn that it is nearly a trope of lazy PR now.

This move, allegedly aligning with the deceased Pope Francis’s 2021 Traditionis Custodes directive to limit the TLM, shuttered celebrations at four parishes, forcing devotees to travel up to 2.5 hours for Mass. The backlash was swift, with the faithful feeling blindsided and betrayed. By today, Monday, May 26, posts on X/twitter revealed the diocese’s next play: leaked “standby statements” for priests to handle complaints, first shared here:

These letters detail talking points answering topics of concern they expect people to express. However, reading what they say reveals that these are meant to gaslight the flock into compliance, fanning the flames, and expose a diocese scrambling to control a crisis of its own making while the faithful’s anger grows louder.

The Crisis Management Toolbox: A Bullet-Point Breakdown

For the uninitiated, the diocese leaned on what are called “standby statements” to address the uproar. If you’re scratching your head, don’t worry—most people don’t know this is standard PR playbook stuff. Standby statements are pre-written scripts organizations whip out when controversy hits, meant to keep the message tight and the narrative controlled. Think of them as the emergency flare of media relations: signal for help, look official, hope it works. Spoiler alert: it didn’t work here. Here’s a rundown of the crisis management tricks the Diocese of Charlotte pulled from their PR hat:

• Deflection of Responsibility: The statements point fingers upward, pinning the decision on Pope Francis and the Vatican. It’s the churchy equivalent of “Talk to the boss, not me.”
  
• Minimization of Impact: They brush off the deep spiritual hit TLM fans took, acting like it’s no big deal—just a minor schedule tweak.
  
• Appeal to Authority: Quoting papal orders like a shield, they hope the faithful will nod along because, well, Rome said so.
  
• Framing as Temporary: “Don’t worry, it’s not forever!” they say, dangling vague hope to soften the blow while demanding obedience now.
  
• Dismissal of Concerns: They nod at the upset, then shrug it off as a misunderstanding—Bishop Martin’s still your buddy, promise!
  
• Geographic Excuse: They argue relocating the TLM to fewer and farther spots makes logistical sense, as if faith runs on a GPS app.

On paper, these are textbook moves. In reality, however? They’re a recipe for disaster when your audience is hurting and looking for leadership, not a corporate memo.

Alienating the Flock: How to Lose Friends and Fracture Faith

Let’s start with the first major failure: the diocese managed to alienate a huge chunk of its flock with all the grace of a bull in a china shop. Picture this—you’ve got devout Catholics who’ve found solace in the Traditional Latin Mass (TLM), and the diocese’s response is essentially, “Sorry, your Mass is canceled, but hey, the new spot’s only a 20-minute drive!” It’s like telling someone who just lost their family dog, “Cheer up, the pet store’s having a sale!” The empathy gap here is wider than the Grand Canyon.

The statements even admit that rolling out Traditionis Custodes will spark division—then defend it as a path to unity. Huh? How do you sell division as togetherness? Is this some secret bishop math where 1 + 1 = chaos? The flock’s left feeling dismissed, unheard, and… let’s be real… pretty ticked off (rightfully so, no less). If the goal was to build bridges, why does it feel like they’re burning them instead?

Failure to Lead: Bishop Martin Passes the Buck

Then there’s Bishop Martin, who’s taken “not my problem” to a whole new level. The standby statements paint him as a helpless bystander, just following orders from a now-deceased Pope Francis. It’s like we’re gonna blame the ghost of Francis as if he’s a vampire roaming the diocese seeking vengeance for”rogue” TLM??? Instead of stepping up as a shepherd—y’know, that guy who fights for his sheep—he’s shrugged and said, “Rome’s rules, not mine.” It’s less “feed my lambs” and more “feed ‘em to the wolves.”

A Bishop’s leadership isn’t about blindly relaying memos from Corporate; it’s about advocating for your people, especially when they’re reeling. By dodging responsibility, Martin’s left the faithful wondering: if he’s this powerless now, what’s he good for when the next storm hits? Is he a bishop or just a guy in a fancy hat playing telephone with the Vatican?

Questions to Ponder (OK, I Might be Sarcastic here)

To keep this critique sharp but dodge the “you’re too mean!” backlash, let’s frame the satire as questions for the diocese to chew on:

• If Bishop Martin (and the diocese for that matter) “listen” to the faithful but do nothing about their pain, is it really listening, or just nodding while planning your next press release? Isn’t this a failure to “accompaniment” and all that other synodality talk?
  
• Does telling TLM fans “the drive’s shorter” fix their spiritual homelessness, or is it like telling a flood victim, “At least you’ve got a pool now!”?
  
• How do you claim “unity” while admitting division is baked into the plan? Is this a unity sandwich with a side of schism?
  
• If Bishop Martin is just a mouthpiece for Rome, why bother having a local bishop at all? Couldn’t a fax machine or secure Vatican email do the job cheaper?

A Crisis Managed Into a Bigger Crisis

The Diocese of Charlotte’s crisis PR is a case study in what not to do (almost like Cupich’s padlocking a church on Good Friday as “an invitation to pray together”). With standby statements that deflect, dismiss, and dodge, they’ve turned a sensitive issue into a full-blown mess. Alienating the flock and showcasing a bishop who’d rather pass the buck than lead? That’s not crisis management—that’s crisis creation. The tone-deafness is jaw-dropping, and it begs the question: if this is the scrubbed-up public face, how bad must the reality be behind closed doors? Maybe next time, they’ll skip the PR script and try something radical—like actual compassion and charity.

BONUS! But wait! There’s more. I give a follow up on the last page of “Guidance” from the Diocese…

And if this “Unity” thing give you deja vu, and you wonder… here’s another follow up post “Is Cupich Behind the Charlotte TLM Crackdown?”

This article, When Crisis PR Misses the Mark: A Satirical Look at the Diocese of Charlotte’s TLM Train Wreck is a post from The Bellarmine Forum.
https://bellarmineforum.org/when-crisis-pr-misses-the-mark-a-satirical-look-at-the-diocese-of-charlottes-tlm-decision/
Do not repost the entire article without written permission. Reasonable excerpts may be reposted so long as it is linked to this page.