Bishop Michael Martin of the Diocese of Charlotte, North Carolina issued a decree on Friday May 23, 2025 ending the traditional Latin Masses at all four parish churches of the diocese where it is currently offered. In what many consider hurtful, the Bishop announced that as a ‘replacement’ for the four traditional communities located at four thriving parishes, he will erect a single chapel 1 to 2 hours away from (roughly in the geographic center of) these four existing communities. In a move that will likely ensure the project’s failure, this new chapel will not offer any other sacraments. Families who attend there will be required to maintain registrations at other diocesan parishes and obtain all other sacraments at this registered diocesan parish.
Despite being the only bishop to choose such a harsh implementation, Bishop Martin claimed that he was completing the implementation of Pope Francis’ motu proprio Traditionis Custodes, begun by his predecessor, Bishop Peter Jugis.
Despite numerous petitions, letters, meetings, and participation in the Diocesan Synod by the Charlotte Latin Mass Community (CLMC) pleading with him not to, Bishop Jugis announced 18 months ago (on December 26, 2023) that permission for the Latin Mass would end in October 2025, and the traditional liturgy would be unified with the Novus Ordo. Bishop Martin with this action is moving that date forward three months to July 8, 2025. The four diocesan parishes currently offering the soon-to-be-canceled Sunday Latin Masses are:
1. St. Ann Catholic Church in Charlotte, NC (Sunday, 12:30pm Latin Mass)
2. St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Church in Charlotte, NC (Sunday, 11:30am Latin Mass)
3. St. John the Baptist Catholic Church in Tryon, NC (Sunday, 8:30am Latin Mass)
4. Our Lady of Grace Catholic Church in Greensboro, NC (Sunday, 1:30pm Latin Mass)
Bishop Martin declared that these changes will take effect on July 8, 2025, and that the new, yet-to-be-named chapel will be located at a surplus diocesan property in Mooresville, North Carolina, which will require substantial renovations.
This whole proposed solution is completely unworkable for families due to its distance and limited sacramental offerings. Bishop Martin declared that families will be required to maintain a registration at a diocesan parish and that no other sacraments (Baptism, Confession, First Holy Communion, Confirmation, Marriages, & Extreme Unction) will be allowed at this new chapel. This means that families will have to travel back and forth for everything. Additionally, diocesan parishes typically require mandatory attendance at catechesis preparation classes for months before sacraments. These formation classes are usually held on Sunday mornings creating a undue hardship for families.
Families trying to pass down the faith to their children shouldn’t be jerked around like this. The sanctuary should be a place of peace and refuge, where we leave worldly struggles behind and offer them at the altar. Our spiritual life should not be the source of our hardship where the faithful have to pray at Mass with one eye open, anxiously watching for novel liturgical innovations on the altar.
In an interview with LifeSiteNews, liturgical scholar Dr. Peter Kwasniewski implored priests to faithfully resist Traditionis Custodes and its accompanying Responsa ad dubia “regardless of threats or penalties,” since obedience to these documents would undermine the very mission of the holy Catholic Church.
Kwasniewski has made the point that “the traditional liturgical worship of the Church, her lex orandi (law of prayer),” is a fundamental expression of her lex credendi, (law of belief), one that cannot be contradicted or abolished or heavily rewritten without rejecting the Spirit-led continuity of the Catholic Church as a whole.”
‘The traditional Mass belongs to the most intimate part of the common good in the Church. Restricting it, pushing it into ghettos, and ultimately planning its demise can have no legitimacy. This law is not a law of the Church because, as St. Thomas Aquinas says, a law against the common good is no valid law,’” he said in a speech at the 2021 Catholic Identity Conference.
He quoted the solemn words of St. Pius V’s bull Quo Primum, which authorized the traditional Mass in “perpetuity.” Quo Primum states:
“(I)n virtue of Our Apostolic authority, We grant and concede in perpetuity that, for the chanting or reading of the Mass in any church whatsoever, this Missal is hereafter to be followed absolutely, without any scruple of conscience or fear of incurring any penalty, judgment, or censure, and may freely and lawfully be used. Nor are superiors, administrators, canons, chaplains, and other secular priests, or religious, of whatever title designated, obliged to celebrate the Mass otherwise than as enjoined by Us. We likewise declare and ordain … that this present document cannot be revoked or modified, but remains always valid and retains its full force …”
Charlotte Latin Mass Community 