UPDATE 30 May 2025:
At The Pillar we read that then-Cardinal Prevost, Prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops, told the new Bishop of Charlotte to put the brakes on a controversial relocation of a diocesan cathedral.
Bull in a china shop?
UPDATE
The Bishop of Charlotte has published responses to some of the points made in social media about his treatment of the people who desire the traditional forms of worship and sacraments.
This is a zip file with the images I was sent. HERE In fairness, it should be looked at.
In essence the bishop says, a) he listened to people b) his predecessor started this in 2013 c) he repeated the canard (which no one really believes) about the Congregation making a decision based on a survey of bishops) d) this is about unity in the Church e) yeah, people will have to drive farther, f) sure there’s a new Pope, but why wait g) no, I won’t ask for an extension h) “Any young man who is only or primarily interested in the celebration of the TLM is not nor ever has been a viable candidate for ordination…”, i) if people give less, they are to blame, j) get used to the Novus Ordo, k) avoid social media, l) again, avoid social media, m) do penance and give up your own needs.
UPDATE
A petition to the local bishop has been launched. It would be best if the signers are a) real people and b) LOCAL, at least near enough to the diocese that they were able to attend the TLM. Think about this practically and charitably and, for the sake of the petitioners, do NOT be angry, rude or verbose in the comment box. You’ll just hurt people. Sometimes less is more.
https://commoninja.site/latinmasspetition
UPDATE below.
Originally Published on: May 23, 2025
The Bishop of Charlotte, NC. is about to suppress all Traditional Latin Masses in parishes and sequester the people who want it in a remote, rural former presbyterian church that doesn’t even have a name yet, as he admitted in his public letter.
It would be a REALLY GOOD IDEA for bishops to leave things be now that there is a NEW POPE with different ideas. We will see who the ideologues are and who the truly pastoral bishops are.
There was twist of the knife at the end of his letter where he wrote… I’m not making this up:
It is my heartfelt desire and prayer that this implementation of Traditionis Custodes will further “promote the concord and unity of the Church” among the People of God in the Diocese of Charlotte so that, as Jesus prayed to His Father, we “may all be one” (John 17:21).
Nice, huh?
I wonder if he would use that “may all be one” line on Ukrainian Catholics? Don’t they pray differently?
Here is the letter.
A priest wrote to me (adjusted a little here and there):
I am certain that you have been emailed 100 times by now.
Speaking from the perspective of a priest of our good diocese. The past year since his appointment has been rocky, to say the least. His immediate focus was on Latin and altar rails in the Novus Ordo … modernizing the liturgy through a liturgical norms document what will attempt to ban the Benedictine altar arrangement, fiddleback vestments, and the amount of lace on an alb.
Today’s sequestering of the Traditional Mass to an inaccessible part of the diocese, namely an old Presbyterian Church outside of the Charlotte metro area, is only the first shoe to drop. ….
Speaking of knife twist’s people now get to drive to an former presbyterian church that – as a Catholic chapel – doesn’t even have a name? Now that’s what you call pastoral solicitude!
BTW… I looked up the Mooresville address given in the letter and found this. I wonder if “Freedom Christian Center of Mooresville” is the place intended in the letter. If so, I wonder if they know that!
There might be a back story to this place. Off the top of my head I could guess that perhaps some well-meaning member or members of the TLM crowd bought it against the day that they might need to go to the catacombs. Of course it could be something entirely different. But these days, it isn’t a stretch of the imagination.
UPDATE:
I received this:
Father, in a desire for truth, I have to send you the article from the Catholic News and Herald which provides much more detail regarding the proposed chapel (former Protestant church) which the Diocese bought because it was adjacent to a Diocese senior living center and is going to spend $700,000 to upfit for appropriate use. This is important information on the story and (in my mind) shows a continued commitment by the Diocese to spend funds for the pastoral needs of those who have a love for the TLM. I thought you should have this additional information given the way you addressed the chapel in your blog. https://catholicnewsherald.com
/90-news/local/11679-latin-mas s?fbclid=IwY2xjawKe0x1leHRuA2F lbQIxMQABHipjAfZF237_N1r0EEUPR 5nucf7awYkW0VO9on0q3I0pIbKWzFH eRH-kmBsD_aem_S0UJaLGQui5GmNgw 9DHy1Q
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In 2023 the previous bishop, Bp. Jugis, obtained from Rome permission to celebrate the TLM in the diocese until Oct 2, 2025.
Politically speaking, I don’t know why Bp. Martin didn’t just allow this permission to expire. Why does he feel the need to hurry things along by a mere 3 months?
So, the people of Charlotte are about to go through the desert in a church with no name…
I’m hearing a bad, tired 70’s song in my head.
Expect more of this. All of this was set to go before Francis passed on and will now be used to force the issue and get Pope Leo to play ball.
In a sense, if Pope Leo isn’t on Francis side with TC, then this will function as a means to morally wound the pontiff. Make people willingly complicit in a moral infraction. You start small and it becomes easier and easier for the to keep going along. The wounds make it so; cost sunk fallacy makes it so.
The jihad against the TLM was not interred cum Francisco. But it’s not a winnable war for the anti-TLM crowd. Pope Leo can either end the fighting with a peace accord, or he can pick up his predecessor’s mighty sword and keep fighting it for the next 20 years. His choice.
I checked and The Freedom Christian Center of Mooresville was located at that address. Their Facebook page says their lease expired April 13th and they were moving out.
So tragic for St Ann’s, a vibrant young Latin Mass Community. So much invested to make the Church beautiful for the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.
I can only see a tremendous lack of charity on the part of the Bishop, especially to uproot so many children, all the altar boys, in the early formation in their Faith, afflicting them with unnecessary and cruel chaos and confusion.
He went from hugging Helene victims to this.
From the Catholic News Herald:
“Bishop Martin’s directive ends Traditional Latin Masses at all parish churches effective July 8 and sets aside the Mooresville chapel for use by the Latin Mass community.
Since renovations will not be finished by July 8, diocesan staff are preparing the school building on the Mooresville property as a temporary worship space until the chapel is ready this fall.”
As Amateur above noted, the bishop is hurrying up to kick faithful Catholics out of the two churches that offer the Vetus Ordo, to move into a Protestant building … that isn’t even ready for them yet. I fail to see the attacks on the Roman Rite as anything but demonic. The bishop and his flock need our prayers.
What are the alternatives to this ecclesastical injustice? Is there a way to get this notice to someone close to the Holy Father? Everyday I pray O God how much longer must Your Church suffer from these liturgical wolves?
Are there Churches in Charlotte NC administered by the FSSP?
It’s almost as if the diocese is worried that the new Pope might lift the restrictions of Traditionis Custodes and wanted to get the TLM shut down while it still had the chance. That is the only reason I can think of why they wouldn’t wait to see what Rome might do.
On a purely practical level, it’s these sorts of arbitrary policies that are utterly depressing to any substantial level of giving or participation in the life of a parish (or any organization or society for that matter). If you don’t know if the things you give towards or work towards are going to just be discarded purely on the whims of whoever is in charge, it makes it difficult to want to invest much beyond the bare minimum into something, especially when one is being gaslit about “unity” while being banished to a ghetto.
I have a friend with three young children and she was always trying to recruit our friends to move to the Charlotte diocese since the old bishop was a faithful man and they had multiple TLMs. So tragic for her and their community! I have zero respect for a man who kicks young families out of beautiful churches and into a moldy old protestant hall. Seriously?!
We have had reason to travel to Charlotte several times over the last few years. It is, frankly, a rather boring city, rather inexplicably overrun with dense infill construction. But it had well-placed parishes and a number of TLMs. We attended St. Thomas more than once. I certainly shan’t be in any hurry to go back there now, I will tell you that.
Note also that the diocese of Charlotte encompasses the vast wilds of western North Carolina, territory that once fell under the jurisdiction of the Benedictine abbot of Belmont Abbey. Distance in that part of the country is deceiving. It takes a long time to get places when you have to wind up and down mountains. The region is dotted with tiny, quaint churches perched on hillsides, some (though not many) of which had TLMs. The churches tend to be rather unassuming structures, though manifestly maintained and adorned with care, staffed by reverent, conscientious priests.
The outlier is Highlands, an almost inaccessible resort enclave that serves as a secluded retreat for moneyed Atlantans. The parish there also had a periodic TLM and is in the midst of a building campaign that will give, or would have given, them a building to rival the town’s spectacular Episcopal edifice. I doubt much of the golfing class who have funded that project will miss it, but we shall see.
As for the Mooresville chapel, the local property records show the diocese purchased the property back in 2000. Why on earth they were letting the kind of weird Protestant service seen in the Facebook photos take place there is certainly beyond me.
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The bishop’s directive is an in-your-face rejection of Pope Leo’s teaching that those exercising church authority should do in service to the community and not as an autocratic exercise of power over others.
To continue to attack the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass from within the Church keeps the demons laughing. Unity and conformity? Are you kidding. Every novus ordo parish is different ranging from intolerable liturgical abuse to the rarer reverent one. Lets all hug, wave, and high five the ‘sign of peace’, shall we? Actually teach the faith as at a TLM parish. Nah. Just love and do as you will because God loves you as you are. And if you do kill someone or rob a bank, there is the 1/2 confession every other Saturday opportunity.
“Further promote…” What alternate universe?
JonPatrick says: “It’s almost as if the diocese is worried that the new Pope might lift the restrictions of Traditionis Custodes and wanted to get the TLM shut down while it still had the chance.”
The good news is that the restrictions set forth in Taurina Cacata can always be abolished by the Pope, so in the end all of these cruel moves by bishops such as the one from Charlotte could eventually prove to be futile. It’s not as if any of this cruelty has to be permanent. In either case, I sincerely hope that affected communities out there are able to privately make their own “catacomb” arrangements.
There’s an SSPX chapel in Charlotte; they’ll benefit from this.
You may have heard this, Fr Z.
The diocese has owned the building for a long time. It’s been rented to this Protestant community for long enough that it’s on Google Maps etc. but their lease was terminated such that they moved out after Palm Sunday and started at a new location on Easter.
That just raises the question of His Lordship’s judgement: surely they understood that the pope was dying and that a new one would be elected by the end of the year. Or not. But they plowed through anyway.
Pacelli: “Are there Churches in Charlotte NC administered by the FSSP?”
No, nor ICKSP. Two diocesan, one SSPX, from what I understand. Especially a shame because the diocesan St. Ann parish is very beautiful.
Our new Holy Father just spoke about looking to the East for inspiration in restoring majesty and mystery to the liturgy. Promising sign.
As a Father of 13, I think I would be attending Saint Anthony of Padua Church in Mt. Holly. It is only 20 min from Charlotte.
I will be 48 this year and am done pretending to tow a line or whatever it is called. I just want to worship God in peace. Without wondering if sacraments will be available, without worrying if the next new bishop will be taking away the TLM.
ALL of my children grew up with the TLM. ALL of them. Some, especially the adult boys, go out of their way to attend the TLM. One drive 90 minutes each way, each Sunday to attend a Solemn High Mass. The other drives 40 minutes the opposite direction to attend the TLM in another parish.
One is ICRSS and the other is diocesan TLM. Thankfully we have generous bishop and there are still four locations in the Diocese. There is also an SSPX chapel in case things go south.
Our state is so blessed. We have five ICRSS, 4 SSPX and at least 15 diocesan TLM available each Sunday. There are more “one off” TLMs if you know who to ask and where to look.
In any event, I will pray for the Bishop. Attacking his own sheep and sending them to the wolves is not what a good shepherd does to his flock.
We are all praying that Pope Leo XIV puts an end to all of this in the near future. Please God, please!
> Our state is so blessed. We have five ICRSS, 4 SSPX and at least 15 diocesan TLM available each Sunday. There are more “one off” TLMs if you know who to ask and where to look.
Which state are you in?
RE: Update:
Very strange that a diocese has an extra $700k to throw around without strings attached in this day and age, especially towards a TLM community when the stated goal of TC (and its implementation) is to get rid of them.
This is very distressing and to think just a few years ago , we had a Pontifical High Mass with Bishop Athanasius Schneider. It’s not just the TLM, watch next it will be the suppression of the reverent N.O . Please pray for us.
Being in the corporate world, it’s not possible to completely understand the Vatican landscape. But to try and extrapolate….I’m hard pressed to believe a careful, cunning political animal as a US Bishop, who wants to maintain his cushy, fat, comfortable position (the polar opposite as to those he succeeded from) would take a position opposite to that of his incoming CEO. I of course may be wrong, but this does not bode well for Traditional worship , except for the crumbs the incoming Pontiff may occasionally dispense.
It’s sad to hear about this and it sounds like a slap in the face to Bishop Emeritus Jugis who helped grow the diocese and had an increase in vocations.
Speaking of western North Carolina, I have relatives in Asheville and I know that area over the past 15 years has had an influx of escapees (mostly retirees who are former sixties kids – I think readers get it) from the northeast. Unfortunately, many of these escapees have turned Asheville and its vicinity to the Berkeley of the south.
I might be tempted in western North Carolina to drive an hour to Knoxville or Greenville – I had an uncle in Greenville and one Sunday I took the time to find Fr. Longnecker’s parish.
That said, I live in Texas. The Galveston-Houston Archdiocese (I spent much of my childhood there and my mom still lives there) recently got a new Archbishop (he came from Austin and ruffled some feathers there) and now the Diocese of Austin is a vacant see. No telling what’s in store coming down the pike. I do pray that Austin gets a good bishop – much of my return to the Church had to do with a good Newman Center at a state college there. During my discernment process, the then- vocations director was in touch with me there. I have a few college friends who are priests in the Austin Diocese so I bet they are praying too. Lots of uncertainty.
UPDATE
A petition to the local bishop has been launched. It would be best if the signers are a) real people and b) LOCAL, at least near enough to the diocese that they were able to attend the TLM. Think about this practically and charitably and, for the sake of the petitioners, do NOT be angry, rude or verbose in the comment box. You’ll just hurt people. Sometimes less is more.
https://commoninja.site/latinmasspetition
A small correction to the correspondent’s statement in the post Update: the Herald article states merely that the property is adjacent to Curlin Commons, the diocesan senior apartments. It is the original site of Christ the King diocesan high school, opened in 2011, which moved to its current location in Huntersville in 2014. Curlin Commons opened in 2010. The former high school building will be used in the interim between when the TLM chaplain is established at the usual time of diocesan clergy appointments in July and whenever the chapel becomes ready for dedication. The distance of this “new spiritual home” from the parishes where TLMs are currently offered in Greensboro and Tryon is approximately 75 miles and 110 miles, respectively.
Yes, this is a very real phenomenon, with several causes. Asheville and its environs have become a huge locus of craft brewing, and the location makes it a hotspot for hikers and kayakers. For reasons I have never understood, those are all “blue-coded” activities. As inexplicable as it is, it’s very observable, there and elsewhere.
Lenoir here. We observed his appearance and demeanor. We immediately knew this would happen.
A group has been formed to encourage people to formally appeal this dreadful decree. Its page, as of TODAY, has been updated with concrete steps. If (and only if) you are in the Diocese of Charlotte, and/or attend Mass there, please visit it and scroll to the section “Immediate Action Items for the Faithful of the Diocese of Charlotte”. It describes how to formally and canonically request a revocation, which creates the necessary conditions for an appeal to Rome. The more people that do this, the better.
This is a very time-sensitive request. The faithful have ten days to launch an appeal, and three have already passed.
See https://www.faithfuladvocate.org/
Fr. Z, would you be kind enough to publicize this?
Those “talking points” could have been written by a tendentious junior high student and do neither the Diocese nor this very-confused bishop any credit. Why not simply quote that most eminent of churchmen, His Eminence Arthur Cardinal Roche, Cardinal-Deacon of San Saba and Prefect of the Dicastery for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments:
“The challenge is to get on with it without licking one’s wounds when no one has been injured.”
Direct and to the point… “Shut up”, he explained!
p.s. What an interesting coincidence it is that the busy Bishop of Charlotte and the benevolent Cardinal Prefect of
CDDW&DotS share the same episcopal motto (“Duc in Altum”) which apparently translates as “Let Them Sleep with the Fishes”Eh, I could be wrong, yet I could swear that Traditionis forbade creating a new parish for the purpose of offering the traditional Mass. Yet, …here they seem to be doing precisely that. They seem to be using the excuse of it being a chapel, one formerly used by Presbyterians.
Wait. They’re having the traditional Mass set up shop in a chapel. ..In a chapel…. I could swear that this is essentially what SSPX has been doing since 1988? Building or renovating something, however “parish-sized” it may be, and offering sacraments?
Doesn’t this inherently cause SSPX to be in communion with Rome?
I’m hoping someone has a REALLY good explanation about the difference between a chapel and a parish that can make sense of this….
There are different “levels” of official churches, including oratories, rectorates, chapels. The Code for the Latin Church starts (as most sections do) with a “theological” foundation based in Vatican II or elsewhere. The Code in force describes a parish as, foundationally, a portion of the people of God. That has implications for the future of territorial parishes in places where people are very mobile. We are not confined to the neighborhood, with our feet or horses.
But… screw the portion of the people of God who want the traditional rite.
What the powers that be haven’t come to grips with is that MARKET FORCES are at work. People give their time, talent and treasure in exchange for what the VALUE. That means that when a TLM location succeeds, people start going there, no matter what territorial place the officially belong to.
Hence, lib resentment of success. Why? Because they are locked up on a zero-sum game world view: if that place over there gets some people – by analogy, a “slice of a pie” – then that is less for me! In contrast, the “trad” side wants to make the pie bigger and bigger and bigger. There is always another slice because they pie is growing. More pie… ever more pie, not less, because of growth.
“…and the location makes it a hotspot for hikers and kayakers. For reasons I have never understood, those are all “blue-coded” activities.”
By that, I assume you mean approved by one of the major political parties in consequence of being “environmentally friendly”? I readily understand why. Ironically, …it’s the same reason people don’t do these sorts of things as often. It’s basically the ultimate “leave-no-trace” activity. You go through nature for a few hours, …then you go home. You use established trails or existing rivers. You use “pre-existing” latrines. You don’t trailblaze or do any damage not already done.
As important, you don’t burn any fossil fuels with propane or white gas stoves, nor do you burn any wood in a campfire. You get some exercise, “interact with nature”, and that’s it.
From a given point of view, that’s great. You avoid the usual “evils” of typical outdoor recreation while still enjoying…outdoor recreation.
A few things for context:
1) Bishop Martin regularly celebrated the Novus Ordo in Latin while chaplain at Duke for around a decade. He’s never been a huge fan of the TLM, but he also has always been a proponent of reverent liturgy and when he took over Duke from the Diocese of Raleigh he instituted many reforms to bring the liturgy at the campus ministry there in line with guidance from the CDW under Cardinal Arinze. The Charlotte Diocese and Raleigh Diocese don’t interact all that much for a few reasons, so there’s probably not much historical memory, but early 2010s Raleigh was still recovering from decades of liturgical experimentation and he was one of the good guys who came in from outside the diocese and insisted on compliance with liturgical norms issued by the Holy See under John Paul II and Benedict XVI.
2) There are thriving TLM parishes in Charlotte but the untold story is that the thriving TLM communities did push out a lot of pre-existing people. After the Capuchins left St. Thomas 10 years ago, St. James experienced a lot of growth because of negative experiences with some of the traditionalist priests there. You didn’t see it in the numbers because they were replaced by people coming from a distance for the TLM, but part of the story of thriving traditional parishes in Charlotte was the displacement of reverent and stable novus ordo communities. There’s still memories of that. Some of the traditionalist priests came in like bulls in a china shop and I wouldn’t be surprised if Bishop Martin heard about it from both parishioners and priests. That would have an impact on his framing in the letter.
3) The reason for July 8 is because that’s when all new priest appointments are made in the Diocese of Charlotte. Charlotte prefers to do all their admin stuff in the summer and generally priest assignments aren’t done any other time. People are going to be moved around with this, and that will impact all parishes since when you move one you move another to fill, etc. July 8th was pretty clearly chosen for practical reasons related to that.
I get the frustration a lot of people feel here, but you’re not talking about a raging liberal bishop bent on destroying all that’s good. He has a track record of correcting liturgical abuses and has celebrated the N.O. in Latin publicly as a priest. That doesn’t jive with the story that’s forming on some corners of the traditional internet.
R2D: “track record”
If there is a “track record”, then surely there is a way to back up what you say about him, which could be an important contribution to the whole conversation about this.
Please guide us to some way to verify what you are saying about him here. Anything posted online in the past about how he has celebrated in Lat, curbed abuses, etc, would be good to know about.
FrZ: unfortunately not much online documented about late 2000s/early 2010s Newman Centers in NC. The Diocese of Raleigh was the Wild West until around 2006 when +Burbidge was installed as bishop and there was a lot of inertia. There was a letter to CDW about practices that prompted a response from Arinze that for the life of me I can’t find, but things like glass chalices and improper baptismal formulas were a thing in Raleigh from the 70s until around the late 2000s. In that context he was one of the ones who promoted being in line with liturgical norms.
Probably the biggest change at Duke that took immediate affect was he cleaned up the sign of peace: it used to be a 10 minute episode where they did a meet and greet through the entire church and had hands roping around every pew. That stopped when he was named chaplain. Glass chalices are the other thing that also stopped being used at Duke around that time.
Never for the life of me thought we’d be having this discussion 10-15 years later so don’t have much more than “I was there when he was one of the good guys”, but been to many masses with him when he was a priest. He was one of the solid priests in that area and was respected by people of all stripes. I’ll keep digging to see if I can find anything, but my suspicion is anything from that era wouldn’t have been archived since it would have been done as an organic change rather than a letter telling college kids what they’d been used to for the previous few years was wrong.
R2D2: I attended (still attend and employed at) St. Thomas Aquinas. While we were fortunate to have Franciscans who were orthodox in preaching, I would hardly define their liturgies as reverent. Grand pianos and saxophones at Mass? Half a dozen EMHC? Children’s liturgy in the parish hall? If anyone left STA to go to St. James it was because they wanted their run of the mill feel good standard Novus Ordo Mass back. When a canon lawyer becomes pastor, he makes the changes to align with church documents. So yes, bye bye GIA hymns and hello Gregorian Chant. In the ten years since we began offering the TLM, the communities have blended well. I don’t attend the Sunday TLM so I can see that families alternate which Mass they attend. Many try to go to at least one tlm Sunday Mass a month.
I have yet to see any signs of respect for the Liturgy from +Martin. When he is visiting reverent parishes he’s demanding minimalism at its core — two candles max, no missal stand, no altar rails, no standing crucifix on the altar, to name a few. Many of these parishes Livestream and you can see the changes he demands. St. Mark is a prime example. He has yet to visit STA or St Anne or the other two TLM parishes.
There’s nothing documenting his reforms to make them more reverent, but there is a letter circulating from his time at Duke asking the students to stand for communion.
I do agree that the July 8 date is standard practice in Charlotte for new assignments. However, the indult expires in October. The chapel is not even finished. It would have been prudent to let us worship in our parishes until the renovations are complete. That’s the kicker for me.
baileymxd: I actually wasn’t referencing that pastor, who I have nothing but positive things to say about even if he and I don’t agree on everything, but several of the other priests who rotated through over the years. STA had a decent outflux to St. James in those years, but you also saw it in outlying parishes like Sacred Heart in Salisbury where you had people who just stopped going to mass until certain priests left and the diocese had to step in since they didn’t have alternatives. Also re: standing, the push for that likely came from the diocesan office of divine worship under +Burbidge. There was a huge push for uniformity of posture in campus ministries under him and it played out at UNC and NCSU as well (started at UNC, but spread to the other two.)
I think the difficulty with Charlotte is that it really is a tale of two dioceses: you talk to some people and what the more traditional priests are doing is seen as wonderful. You talk to others and you hear horror stories about dividing parishes. I no longer live there but have friends in the presbyterate and lay faithful there and even those I know who were regular TLM goers elsewhere have raised concerns, while I have other friends who see the work at STA and St. Anne’s as examples for the rest of the country. It’s hard to know what to believe, though I’ve also had some of the negative experiences so I’m more likely to give that side credence.
It’s why I wasn’t really surprised when I read the news knowing the bishop from his Duke days. I think he actually thinks he’s doing this as a unifying move.
jflare29: Good pie analogy, I agree.
R2D: Apropos the so-called “reverent Novus Ordo” … yawn.
I find it fascinating that, in the busy life of a bishop, we find time in a draft liturgical letter to prohibit women wearing “veils” during any form of liturgical lay ministry…
And yet of course women are equal with men in being able to serve in liturgical lay ministries… as long as they dress like men!
(hollow laughing)
Interesting that “veils” are the only thing indicated. (I blink innocently.)
I hope this comes from the pen of a non-bishop, because this is astoundingly dominating. It is the privilege of women throughout the ages to dress themselves and their hair. You really, really don’t want to play this game with faithful, pious, obedient women, because it’s never going to work out well. (Much less with any woman who’s not enthused about going to church, or unsure if God loves women as much as men.)
The Apostles didn’t get too specific in Scripture, or try to stamp out fashion altogether; and the Virgin Mary’s known handwork was very colorful and well-crafted.
Similarly, although candles on the altar are prohibited in the draft letter, gigantic tree-sized free-standing candles are not prohibited, and neither are giant walls of candlesticks a la your Spanish cathedral.
Similarly… there’s a basic difference between unity and uniformity, and even more difference from conformity and grinding people down.
If you squeeze and squeeze, fruit gets smashed to pulp, and flowers get crushed. If you let people grow together in their own ways, you get fruit and flowers.
I wonder, how many people have died since the new pope was elected? How many of them had no TLM to go to and went to their graves waiting for in hopes that the new pope would do something? How much longer must we all wait.
In the diocese where I live there are no confessions and no holy water. I happened to be speaking to a man, new face I had never met before, outside the church before mass during lent. I lamented to him that there was no TLM and we couldn’t get permission for another visit like we had one time before the pandemic. The man was shocked. He began to explain that he hadn’t prevented anything and that it wasn’t his fault that there was no TLM. It turned out that I was talking to the bishop who happened to be wearing street clothes.
Well lent is over, Easter has passed and we even have a new pope. Two people from our parish have passed away.
From a post on Substack, a parishioner points out that the church building where she assists at the VO (and the OF or NO is celebrated there by the same priest) has been chosen by the Bishop to be the new cathedral for the diocese of Charlotte NC. But apparently someone had donated $10 million toward the construction of a new cathedral within Charlotte.
So some people wonder if there is more going on than just a desire to crush the VO.
Of course I cannot verify any of this, but being an economist I like explanations based on pecuniary desires.
I would like to add something to this conversation. The priest who offers the TLM that I used to be able to attend regularly volunteered to move to the only church in the diocese that had not been desecrated enough to make an ad orientem Mass difficult. He always preached the true faith, so at the liberal parish where he had been pastor he had apparently had a difficult time. So he changed parishes in the diocese to first learn and then offer the TLM while also being pastor to a largely NO parish in financial straits. This was around 2009.
I had been worshipping at a mass site offered by a schismatic Traditionalist group that was well thought of by the mainly underground TLM movement. As the founder was in the throes of death in late 2010 he agreed to reconcile with the diocese. There was an agreement that the diocese would offer permanently a TLM and this agreement was approved by Rome. So after 13 wonderful years ignoring church politics I started assisting at the diocesan TLM offered by the above priest and after a couple of years my wife and I decided to get right with the church so we could receive Holy Communion. The problem was that the agreement between the schismatic group and the diocese had assumed all supporters of the schismatic group were cradle Catholics, when in fact there were many direct converts. (One of the current priests in the diocese was confirmed when my family and I were back in 2003 or 2004. He offers only the NO.) So it took some work for Father to figure out how to formally admit us. We had a private service in the sacristy after Mass during which we agreed with basically the Apostle’s creed. I cannot remember the details other than him mentioning the hard time he had been getting from the NO group because he offered the TLM. I was surprised to hear this, but yes, he got it from both sides but more from the NO crowd. This church building is close to 100 years old now, but it would have been closed by now without the financial help from the TLM congregation.
I get increasingly annoyed with people saying the TLM people are hostile and intolerant. The members of this parish who assist at the TLM are the most grateful people in the world, and I would guess that those at other diocesan TLMs are also truly grateful, while if they share a pastor with a NO crowd, the latter are more likely to be resentful because their congregation is not growing.
This church has had the Latin Mass regularly on a Sunday morning for only 16 or 17 years and now the children who were 10 years old when we started going there are now getting married and having children. The pastor does at least 10 Latin baptisms for every English Baptism and I would say there are at least 18 TLM babies born each year. There were 3 last week!
A little anecdote, when I complemented a mother on how well her brood of children behaved at Mass, she replied “Thank you but I cannot get them to behave at a NO mass.”
God bless all here!
This whole game of setting up a chaplain to offer the TLM is something the people of the state of Maine have had for a decade or more. Two Sunday Masses, one in each of two different cities.
For the person curious about the difference between a chaplaincy and parish. There is no sense of belonging. You rent a slot at a Catholic Church and still tithe the diocese ( the bishop needs your support, even though you won’t get much of his!) but cannot count on a place of your own.
The FSSP has several times attempted to go into Maine with no acceptance by the bishop. This has led many people to travel over 100 miles to New Hampshire to attend an FSSP parish.
Continue to pray.
Raymond Arroyo, Robert Royal and Fr Gerald Murray on the issue (aka the Prayerful Posse):
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=eYagITsfsk8
In the spirit of “Eccles” I was moved by the chaos in Charlotte (particularly the over-the-top directives regarding the Novus Ordo) to summarize matters for those who lack the fortitude to read through:
1. The Ordo Novus is thy liturgy, no other shalt thou havest.
2. Thou shalt not kneel; despiseth the rails of thy mothers and buildest none anew.
3. Thou shalt not avert thy face from the multitides when presiding, nor lurk behind statuary.
4. Thou shalt not employ obsolete forms of illumination, nor devices to elevate the Holy Book.
5. Honor thy electronic worship aids, that the multitudes may hear loudly and see brightly.
6. Thou shalt not speaketh in strange tongues, which the multitudes canst never comprehend.
7. Thy bells shalt not be rung, nor jingled or tolled, nor clanged, tinkled, bing’ed or bong’ed.
8. Never shalt thou omit the Holy Handshake at the Lord’s Supper, even during plagues.
9. Eschew the use of the pall unless the worship space is beset by bibulous locusts
10. Makest thou joyful noises unto the Lord always, being undaunted by any lack of enthusiasm from the multitudes.
THUS COMMANDETH HIS GRACE THE LORD BISHOP OF CHAR-LOT