Charles Albert Hammond

Hammond was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and died in Colorado on Wednesday, 21 October 2026, at the age of 77. The Diocese of Saginaw announced his death on 23 October, noting that he had served as a priest for more than 50 years, and his family planned to honour his life locally.

A memorial Mass was scheduled for Friday, 6 November 2026, at 11 a.m. at the Cathedral of Mary of the Assumption in Saginaw, celebrated in the context of Bishop Robert Gruss's First Friday Mass, with all welcome to attend.

Charles Albert Hammond was born on 15 September 1949 in Austin, Texas, the son of John Hammond and Carmen Sierra. He attended St. Andrew School in Fort Worth, Texas, and then St. Anthony High School Seminary in San Antonio.

He went on to study at St. Mary's University in San Antonio and at Creighton University in Omaha, Nebraska, where he earned a bachelor's degree in Spanish. He completed his theological studies at the Oblate School of Theology in San Antonio.

Hammond was ordained to the priesthood on 29 May 1976 by Bishop Patrick Flores at the Shrine of Our Lady of San Juan in San Juan, Texas. He spent the next seven years, from 1976 to 1983, in missionary work in Mexico.

From 1983 to 1985 he was vocation director for the Oblates of Mary Immaculate in San Antonio, and from 1986 to 1992 he was director of lay ministry for the Diocese of San Angelo, Texas. He was then pastor of Our Lady of the Gulf in Port Lavaca, Texas, from 1993 to 1995, and of St. Margaret Mary in Lamesa, Texas, from 1995 to 1997.

He moved to Michigan in 1998, serving first as administrator and then as pastor of St. Mary in Parisville and St. Anthony of Padua in Helena until 2002. He was incardinated into the Diocese of Saginaw on 9 July 2001. He was pastor of St. Mary in Alma and Mount Saint Joseph in St. Louis from 2002 to 2004, of St. Joseph in Sandusky and St. John the Evangelist in Peck from 2004 to 2013, and of St. Columbkille in Sheridan Corners, St. John the Evangelist in Ubly, St. Ignatius in Freiburg and St. Joseph in Argyle from 2013 to 2019.

His fluency in Spanish made him a key supporter of Hispanic ministry in the diocese. During the summer he celebrated many of the Migrant Masses for farm workers in the Thumb together with his good friend, the late Father Todd Arnberg.

Hammond became a senior priest of the Diocese of Saginaw on 1 July 2019 and moved to the Denver area of Colorado to be near his family, living in Lone Tree. One of his last ministries was as an itinerant preacher for Unbound, a Catholic organisation of sponsors who support some of the poorest families in the world.

Across five decades Hammond served Catholics in Mexico, Texas and Michigan, and he is remembered in the Diocese of Saginaw above all for his bilingual ministry. His summer Masses for migrant workers, celebrated alongside Father Todd Arnberg, and his long service to small rural parishes in the Thumb made him a familiar figure to several generations of parishioners.