Posted on 05/23/2025 4:34:28 PM PDT by ebb tide
Bishop Michael T. Martin of Charlotte, North Carolina announced Friday he will be shutting down traditional Latin Masses at parish churches in his diocese — four in total — and merging them into one non-Catholic chapel, citing Traditionis Custodes.
The traditional Catholic social media account Sensus Fidelium posted a copy of the letter to X on Friday morning explaining that the decision shutters two diocesan TLM parishes in Charlotte at St. Ann and St. Thomas Aquinas as well as one in Tyron (St. John the Baptist) and one in Greensboro (Our Lady of Grace).
Bishop Martin shared that, effective July 8, the traditional Latin Mass will no longer be offered at parish churches in the diocese but instead will be moved to a designated “chapel” at 757 Oakridge Farm Highway in Mooresville, a Protestant center (Freedom Christian Center).
Pope Francis’ motu proprio Traditionis Custodes states that TLMs are not to be celebrated in “parochial” churches.
The DC Rosary Rally for the Latin Mass X account decried the decision as “evil” and called for Pope Leo XIV to “restore Summorum Pontificum immediately.”
The TLM previously held in Boone was suppressed as of Jan. 9, 2024, along with those at few other Catholic churches in the diocese. Charlotte’s previous bishop, the outspokenly conservative Bishop Peter Jugis, had announced in December 2023 that due to Traditionis Custodes, the number of Sunday Latin Masses would be reduced from six to four, and that the remaining four would only be allowed to continue until 2025.
As Bishop Martin noted in his letter, Bishop Jugis — who had overseen the growth of TLM locations, including a new minor seminary that offered training in the old rite – had obtained Vatican approval of a continuation of diocesan TLMs until 2025.
Latin Masses offered by priests of the Society of St. Pius X (SSPX) will continue at St. Anthony of Padua in Mount Holly, near Charlotte. The Charlotte Latin Mass community has noted:
The Holy See has, on various occasions, written that the Masses of the SSPX are valid and that the faithful who attend them fulfill their Sunday and Holy Day obligations. The Holy See has even written that in justice, we are free to contribute to their collections at Mass.
It remains to be seen whether Pope Leo XIV will reverse any of Francis’ restrictions on the TLM.
“The fight ain’t over yet,” declared the moderator of the Sensus Fidelium account. “We’ll hit Rome up. Bishop probably thinks if he puts it in no mans land (away from everyone) that nobody will go and it’ll die off. He doesn’t get the people have more heart.”
“They’re robbing us,” lamented X user Atticus Isidore, who said the Greensboro TLM “attracts people from as far as Graham.” Greensboro is an hour and half’s drive from downtown Charlotte, and Tyron is two hours from Charlotte.
Traditionis Custodes, which has led to the suppression of dozens of Latin Masses around the world, has been denounced by clergy and scholars as a repudiation of the perennial practice of the Catholic Church and even of solemn Church teaching.
Cardinal Raymond Burke has affirmed that the traditional liturgy is not something that can be excluded from the “valid expression of the lex orandi.”
“It is a question of an objective reality of divine grace which cannot be changed by a mere act of the will of even the highest ecclesiastical authority,” wrote the cardinal in 2021.
Liturgical scholar Dr. Peter Kwasniewski has also implored priests to 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 …
Would anyone, however, presume to commit such an act (i.e., altering Quo Primum), he should know that he will incur the wrath of Almighty God and of the Blessed Apostles Peter and Paul.
Respectful communications to the Diocese of Charlotte can be submitted here.
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Thank you very much and God bless you.
Protestant chapel in the middle of nowhereland offered by the bishop of Charlotte for the Celebration of the Traditional Latin Mass to the lepers and pariahs that live in half of the state, in an area with 5.5 million inhabitants, while all Parish TLMs are destroyed.
Ping
This does nothing to promote concord and unity.
I’m not Catholic, but I thought I read something the other day that Pope Leo wasn’t going to get rid of the Latin Mass.
Same. (Read it, not Catholic) He sung the Regina Coeli in Latin, which I guess is a good sign.
The Bishop is just a mean SOB. He doesn’t care about his flock. He’s a hireling.
He wants to get his order in under the wire in case Leo reverses Bergoglio’s Latin Mass edict. This Bishop is a real piece of work, or should I say POS?
If Bishop Martin fails any of the three courses, His Holiness can bust him to seminarian.
Our Lady of Akita
October 13, 1973
I think he will reverse that edict
“He sung the Regina Coeli in Latin, which I guess is a good sign.”
Interesting. I stopped going to Catholic Church when they revised the service and got rid of Latin. Just didn’t feel holy there any more. Great protestant church nearby, bible classes, nice people.
I grew up as an altar boy serving Latin Masses. They were beautiful services with Latin hymns and pipe organs and incense. We all learned Latin. It was glorious. After Vatican Ii it became a freaking hootenanny and I quit going. This bishop is an A-hole.
How many times will they bring Jesus down and putting him back on the cross before these people are satisfied that he sacrificed enough?
It’s unbiblical anyway. You people don’t even realize what you’re doing.
I don’t understand your post.
Zero.
Do you have another stupid question?
Perhaps the New Chapel could be Named;
“Saint Luther” ???
All due respect.
.
I Was Episcopalian as a Youngster
Now just a KJV Jesus Freak.
Santa Maria in Palmis (Italian: Chiesa di Santa Maria delle Piante; Latin: Sanctae Mariae in Palmis), also known as Chiesa del Domine Quo Vadis, is a small church southeast of Rome. It is located about some 800 m from Porta San Sebastiano, where the Via Ardeatina branches off the Appian Way, on the site where, according to the apocryphal Acts of Peter, Saint Peter met the risen Christ while Peter was fleeing persecution in Rome. According to the tradition, Peter asked him, “Lord, where are you going?” (Latin: Domine, quo vadis?). Christ answered, “I am going to Rome to be crucified again” (Latin: Eo Romam iterum crucifigi). I hope to go there before I die. Thanks.
WTF is up with the H8 of TLM by the current Catholic hierarchy?
What kind of threat does it present?
At all.
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