Open Letter to the Holy Father

Posted publicly due to lack of secure or supported means of communication
May 10, 2025

Your Holiness,

With great reverence and urgency, I write to you not through official channels, but publicly—out of necessity, not choice. I am a baptized Christian and a man in need of spiritual refuge, justice, and a private audience with you. Despite multiple sincere attempts to engage with the Catholic Church locally, I was left alone—once even laying at the foot of the church steps under the gaze of security cameras, pleading for help, and receiving none.

This letter is not for spectacle, nor is it born of cynicism. It is a desperate appeal born of faith in Christ and a belief that you—above all spiritual leaders on Earth—still carry the humility and strength to hear the cries of the voiceless, and to act.

Your Holiness, I cannot send you a letter or confession through traditional means. I do not trust the security of any communication in the United States. I believe that forces within the U.S. government, including those loyal to Donald J. Trump, have used surveillance infrastructure to monitor and violate the sanctity of what should be protected by divine and human law—namely, a person's sacred right to confession, healing, and private prayer.

I am not deluded, nor seeking pity. I am seeking spiritual safety. I am seeking to be heard by someone who answers to God before men. If your arms are open to the abused, the displaced, the outcast—then I ask that you open your arms to me, a man whose soul is exhausted, yet unbroken. A man who has not given up on truth or mercy.

I do not know what protocol exists for someone in my position to safely and confidently request a private audience with the Holy Father. But I know that if Jesus could be reached by touching the hem of His garment, then perhaps I too can be reached through this public cry for help.

I am not asking for publicity or pageantry. I am asking to be received.

If any in your clergy, anywhere, see this letter, I beg of them: let it reach the Vatican. Let it reach someone who does not fear truth and does not look away from the suffering of those without political power or family connections.

I place this request in God’s hands—and yours.

Killian Yates
A man in exile within his own country, seeking the Church he was taught would never abandon him.