Charlotte Bishop Threatens Full-Scale ‘Liturgy War’

Bishop Martin’s leaked memorandum reveals that his mission goes WAY BEYOND ending the Tridentine Mass: he wants to destroy all signs of Tradition.

With a directive that bans the celebration of the Traditional Latin Mass (TLM) in his parishes, and the threat of more detailed instructions barring even modest incorporation of traditional practices, Bishop Michael Martin of Charlotte, North Carolina, threatens to re-ignite the bitter “liturgy wars” that divided the Catholic Church in the 1960s and 1970s. Ironically, the bishop explains his policy proposals as a means of fostering greater unity among the faithful.

Last week Bishop Martin announced that he would prohibit the use of the traditional liturgy in parish churches to “promote the concord and unity of the Church.” He said that the TLM would be allowed only in one chapel which will be renovated to serve the traditionalist Catholics of the diocese—a territory that covers more than 20,000 square miles in the rugged hills of western North Carolina.

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That announcement naturally caused consternation among Catholics devoted to the TLM, who had hoped that the election of Pope Leo XIV might lead to an easing of restrictions on the old liturgy. But their disappointment turned to outrage with the revelation that Bishop Martin was planning a far more minute regulation of liturgical practices, discouraging and even forbidding the use of altar rails, the Latin language, and the ad orientem posture—all of which are permitted if not encouraged by official Vatican directives.

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The traditionalist Rorate Caeli web site unearthed a draft of the regulations that Bishop Martin evidently planned to release. The Pillar later confirmed that the bishop’s letter was genuine, but added that the implementation of the proposed policies had been delayed, because of opposition among the priests of the Charlotte diocese. (Several priests had already written to the bishop, urging him to reconsider his ban on the TLM in parishes.) The reasons for that resistance were easy to discern. Bishop Martin’s policy proposal would have gone far beyond the prohibition on the TLM, to forbid any incorporation of traditional liturgical practices in the Novus Ordo.

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TAKE ACTION: Contact Bishop Martin at bishopsoffice@rcdoc.org or 704-370-6299 and let him know what you think.