Traditional Catholics showed up en masse to kneel to receive Holy Communion on the tongue at a Mass with Bishop Michael Martin, OFM, of the Diocese of Charlotte and about a dozen other bishops present.
At a concelebrated Tuesday Mass for the Atlanta Province Bishops Conference held at the Cathedral of St. Patrick in Charlotte, North Carolina, almost every single lay Catholic in attendance kneeled to receive the Eucharist – the Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of Jesus Christ – in a show of support for reverence for God amid Martin’s crackdown on tradition, Max Stouse told LifeSiteNews.
According to Stouse, about a dozen bishops total were present, including the bishops of the Dioceses of Charlotte, North Carolina; Raleigh, North Carolina; Charleston, South Carolina; and Savannah, Georgia, among which were numbered Archbishop Gregory John Hartmayer, Bishop John-Nhan Tran, Cardinal Wilton Gregory, and Bishop Joel Matthias Konzen.
Stouse’s mother told LifeSiteNews that their purpose was to “show a reverent resistance” to the anti-traditional agenda of Martin, who had plans to restrict traditional practices within the liturgy, as a draft letter from Martin leaked in May showed. His plans, which included a ban on altar rails and kneelers, were leaked less than a week after Martin announced sweeping bans on the traditional Mass.
“To instruct the faithful that kneeling is more reverent than standing is simply absurd,” he wrote in the document originally published on the blog Rorate Caeli.
Continue reading at LifeSite News
Faithful in Charlotte continue to kneel despite efforts of Bishop Michael Martin to discourage the traditional practice by removing kneelers. [Video from July 1, 2025 Mass during Atlanta Province annual meeting, with nine other bishops in attendance].#bishopmartin #charlotte pic.twitter.com/9NFdblyyWU
— Charlotte Latin Mass Community (@CLMCLatinMass) July 3, 2025