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Posted on 01/19/2026 9:51:45 AM PST by ebb tide
In the Diocese of Charlotte, Bishop Michael Martin’s pastoral letter of December 17, 2025 ordered that altar rails, kneelers and prie-dieux be removed from public Masses by Friday, January 16.
As the first Sunday Masses without altar rails unfolded this weekend, reports from across the diocese indicated anything but uniform compliance. While some parishes removed temporary kneelers and adjusted Communion lines, others made no immediate changes, awaiting Vatican clarification on a dubia submitted by more than 30 priests. The result has been a patchwork of responses indicating deep frustration with the bishop’s vision of liturgical conformity.
As parishioners awaited this day, The Catholic Herald spoke with laity from multiple parishes and a diocesan staffer prior to Saturday the 17th. Many voiced deep frustration and concern, viewing the removal of altar rails as a liturgical time bomb they foresaw would not go well for the first Sunday Mass.
The Catholic Herald first spoke with Jason Murphy, longtime coordinator of the Catholic Men’s Conference of the Carolinas, its co-founder in 2010 and leader since 2019. He offered a perspective from his parish, the Cathedral of St Patrick in Charlotte. Murphy recalled how the cathedral’s renovation in the late 1980s or early 1990s stripped away its original marble altar rails in favour of a modern look. “They were sliced up, they were used as wall decoration, they were used as altar server benches, things like that.”
A revival of reverence arrived with Bishop Peter Jugis around 2003, followed by Father Christopher Roux’s appointment as rector in 2008. Under Roux, the rails were restored within a few years. Murphy explained the impact: “You just noticed that even people who might not typically kneel would still receive on the tongue.” He tied this directly to the principle of lex orandi, lex credendi. “The way you pray is the way you believe. And so people started to give more reverence to the Blessed Sacrament.” Without rails, he said, “most people aren’t going to kneel” because of “herd mentality”.
When asked about the dubia submitted by more than 30 priests to the Vatican on January 5, 2026, seeking clarification on Bishop Michael Martin’s directive, Murphy expressed sadness at the escalation. “I think that overall it was really a sense of sadness that it had to be escalated to that, because several priests met with him individually and as small groups, especially the ones who were celebrating the Latin Mass,” he said, describing those priests as “some of the holiest, humblest, quietest, respectful men and priests that you might encounter”. The lack of response, he added, is “really concerning” and “kind of scary in a sense”.
In his overall assessment, Murphy stressed that the controversy extends beyond a Traditional Latin Mass versus Novus Ordo divide. “And really, it’s not just a TLM–Novus Ordo situation,” he said. Initial perceptions that Bishop Michael Martin simply disliked the Traditional Latin Mass led many priests to respond with obedience and patience. Further changes followed. “Removing the ringing of bells, removing prayer to St Michael, comments about women wearing veils, discouraging any kneeling at all for the Blessed Sacrament. It’s odd.”
Bredon Kimel, a former Marine and current airline pilot who is a parishioner at St Thomas Aquinas Parish in Charlotte, gave his lifelong perspective on altar rails. “Altar rails have been part of my experience since childhood,” he said. “My father was an Episcopal priest and we had altar rails. When I converted to Catholicism, I was shocked to learn they were mostly removed from churches after Vatican II.”
Drawing on his years of travel as a Marine aviator and commercial pilot, Kimel noted that he has “periodically found parishes that still use altar rails, so it isn’t unheard of for a parish to both have and use them”. For him, altar rails symbolise core spiritual values. “To me, altar rails evoke reverence, beauty and tradition. Reverence because of the kneeling and the separation of the sanctuary, beauty because of the aesthetic, and tradition because this is how it’s been done for ages. I’ve heard no good or even coherent reasons for discontinuing it.”
Kimel went further. “The fact that so many parishes in his diocese are strongly traditional, and that many of the laity find in it a source of spiritual foundation and zeal, from which so many vocations have come, shows what kind of zealot he is that he would seek to ban immediately the things so many have come to rely upon in their spiritual life. This is not a legitimate use of his authority.”
Questions have also been raised about Bishop Martin’s authority. Dominican Fr Pius Pietrzyk, a canon lawyer in Washington, DC, has questioned whether the pastoral letter carries the force of binding law. “When the Mass gives options, the universal authority has vested those options not in the bishop, but in the priest celebrant,” he told the National Catholic Reporter, adding that the document “lacks some of the indicia one would normally expect of a legislative act”. He views it as the imposition of personal liturgical preference rather than the exercise of legitimate authority.
Aloonsri Montgomery, a parishioner at St Thomas Aquinas Parish in the diocese of Charlotte, gave The Catholic Herald a personal lament over the diocese’s lack of response to lay concerns. “The responses are nonexistent. Personal meetings are more effective when sharing hearts,” she said, noting that she and others “received no communication from the diocese or offices”. She described the pain caused by the directive. “It’s hard to understand his heart. As sheep, it’s almost abusive in the spiritual sense as I am trying to say to my bishop this hurts us. Spiritually, in my soul, what you’re doing is hurting me.”
She also described confusion and self-doubt amid the changes. “I’m trying to understand his heart to figure out if my catechism is wrong or if he isn’t listening,” she said, adding that “in the United States we have been accustomed to the profane, and we don’t know what to do with holiness”.
An anonymous laywoman from St Ann’s Church described her initial reaction to the directive. “As someone who cannot kneel without the assistance of the rail, it was very upsetting,” she said. “The rails at St Ann’s and other churches in the Charlotte Diocese were a consolation compared with the many churches in the US that do not have them. I have fallen trying to piously receive my Lord.” For her and others with physical limitations, the rails provided both practical support and a sense of dignity in approaching the Blessed Sacrament.
Asked whether parishioners might openly reject the directive, she doubted widespread rebellion. “Some might, but it’s doubtful. The laity love their pastors and priests and wish not to cause them any more harm.” Addressing Bishop Martin directly, she asked: “What is so wrong about doing Catholic things that have been done for over a millennium? The architecture is already in place to allow assistance to those who wish to kneel.” She described the bishop’s actions as “retaliatory and divisive from the beginning”, claiming priests and employees are “scared to death”, projects have stalled at financial cost, tithing has declined, and pain has been inflicted that “may be irreversible without reparation”.
Another anonymous layperson from Saint Leo the Great Parish in Winston-Salem, where no permanent altar rails exist, recalled earlier hopes under the previous ordinary. “Absolutely, we were in the process of looking at adding portable rails that could be moved prior to Bishop Martin arriving, but when he showed up I was told by the priests that it wasn’t going to happen with him,” he said. He explained their value. “Rails are important because they are an outward posture or expression of an inward attitude of your heart.” He lamented the timing. “If Bishop Jugis [the diocese's former bishop] had been able to hang on for another year, I think we might have gotten off the rails.”
Addressing what laypeople should do, he acknowledged the call to obedience. “We are called to obedience as he is our shepherd.” He nevertheless insisted that pushback is warranted. “You need to push back and appeal to a higher authority. We as laymen must appeal to Rome, pray and fast.” He advocated “limited disobedience within the scope of the laws of the Church” and urged priests to “take a stand”.
These calls for principled resistance are reflected in the dubia submitted on January 5, representing a collective appeal to Rome. An open letter circulating among Charlotte priests urges solidarity in pastoral charity, stating that no one in good standing should be denied Holy Communion, even if they approach an altar rail.
The Catholic Herald also spoke with Joshua Anderson, a former parishioner of the Diocese of Charlotte who converted to Catholicism with his wife from Presbyterianism at Our Lady of Grace in May 2020 and now worships in Virginia. Reflecting on the liturgical changes, he said he felt “saddened and enraged at alternate times”, but most deeply “a sense of betrayal”. He credited the Latin Mass community with welcoming them and sharing “a deep love for our Lord, most especially in the Eucharist”.
“The Latin Mass community at Our Lady of Grace welcomed us warmly, countering Protestant warnings about lacking genuine fellowship in the Church. They brought us into the fold and shared with us a deep love for our Lord, most especially in the Eucharist,” he said, cherishing the “reverence, beauty and sanctity” that helped them embrace the fullness of the faith after finding their prior tradition insufficient.
Perhaps the most severe criticism came from an anonymous diocesan staff member, who prefers the Novus Ordo but strongly disagreed with Bishop Michael Martin’s directive, calling it “a grave offence against charity and justice”. “The people have a right to receive kneeling and on the tongue,” the staffer said, arguing that removing “acceptable aids for allowing people to receive the way that they wish to receive” is “contrary to justice” and “contrary to charity”. Practically, they said, “it will slow down Communion” and may necessitate extraordinary ministers of Holy Communion “where they weren’t needed at all before”.
The staffer added that the document imposes “a lot of directives and preferences” through “preferential authority”, which they said lacks precedent in the Church and creates conflict and division. While acknowledging that Bishop Martin “truly believes that he is trying to unify the faithful”, they noted that “unity is not necessarily making every expression of liturgical worship identical”.
They also pointed to his limited pastoral experience, noting that “he has nearly two decades as a chaplain at Duke University, but he was only installed as a pastor for about 18 months before he became the bishop-elect of Charlotte”. His religious order background, they said, has influenced his decisions, as “diocesan and religious life are two different ball games”.
The anonymous source said diocesan staff working closely with parishes have felt the full impact of the changes. “Those of us who are working in the parishes read the directives and think…” they said. Early optimism, sparked by the bishop’s public and private promises, evaporated because “the words and the actions simply don’t match”. He has “walked back on things or just ignored what he said before”, creating a chancery atmosphere of tension. “It is like walking on eggshells in your own home.”
Turnover has been severe, with “people jumping ship left and right”, staff moving elsewhere for spiritual peace, and the diocese struggling to fill ministry positions. “We are growing more and more anxious by the minute at times,” the staffer said, particularly after broken assurances “not to change things that we love, that we have a right to per either the rubrics or the laws of the Church”.
Asked about reconciliation with the bishop, they said that after nearly two years it feels remote. Trust, they said, has been badly damaged. Even so, the staffer expressed hope that “something can be done here for the good of the faithful, the unity within the diocese among the clergy, the seminarians, the lay faithful, the consecrated religious who are here, and our ordinary”, while avoiding any direct call for the bishop’s removal.
Regarding the dubia submitted by priests and the clergy’s immediate response, the staffer noted that some wanted to sign but held back “due to lack of canonical stability” or fear. Pastors are expected to obey the directive this Sunday while awaiting Vatican clarification, bound by their ordination promise of obedience to the local ordinary. Still, the staffer said they would be “absolutely shocked” if any priest refused Communion to someone kneeling, whether on a step without a kneeler or directly on the floor.
As the final interview concluded, The Catholic Herald learned that on Sunday, according to parishioners, some priests made no changes, holding off pending Rome’s reply to the dubia. Others removed temporary rails or recruited extraordinary ministers in anticipation of slower lines. With the dubia unanswered and trust already eroded, the weekend became a litmus test. The ban, intended to unify through common posture, instead revealed a diocese grappling with principled resistance from priests and laity alike.
The laity have emerged as primary actors in the dispute. The Catholic Herald learned that parishioners from multiple parishes approached altar rails themselves and continued as before. They also highlighted the $9,000 raised by Charlotte faithful for the documentary Bread Not Stones, a grassroots effort to document and share the story beyond the diocese. At St Vincent de Paul, a handmade portable rail crafted by a parishioner was relocated, while at St Mark’s a family-donated movable rail was repositioned near the statues at the front, bringing the family to tears.
The faithful’s quiet persistence in kneeling and approaching the altar rail has turned potential enforcement into a sign of piety, shifting the situation from top-down compliance to bottom-up fidelity.
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Ping
Just say no.
This is so weird!
Maybe Bishop Martin is trying to make the Mass equal to an Episcopalian ceremony. The Church is changing but not for the better.
Sort of like the addendum to the Lord’s Prayer?
Martin is another of Satan’s Servants following orders from the Chief of Satan’s Servants at his headquarters in the Vatican.
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