Baltimore native stirs controversy in Charlotte Diocese over liturgical norms

A leaked draft document on revising liturgical norms in the Diocese of Charlotte, N.C., has stirred backlash for its addressing of some practices predating the Second Vatican Council.

However, diocesan communications director Liz Chandler told OSV News the leaked document was “an early draft that has gone through considerable change over several months,” with discussions taking place in a consultative manner among the diocese’s presbyteral council and divine worship office.

A copy of the undated 7,800-word pastoral letter — titled “Go In Peace, Glorifying the Lord By Your Life,” and apparently written by Charlotte Bishop Michael T. Martin, OFM Conv. — was uploaded May 28 to the blog Rorate Caeli, a platform that describes itself as “international, traditional, Catholic.” Bishop Martin is a Baltimore native as well as a graduate and former president of Archbishop Curley High School.

Chandler confirmed the authenticity of the letter, but noted in a statement to OSV News that “it represented a starting point to update our liturgical norms and methods of catechesis for receiving the Eucharist.

“Once our norms have been thoroughly reviewed in accord with the norms of the General Instruction of the Roman Missal and of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, any changes will be shared through the diocese’s regular communications channels,” she said.

The Diocese of Charlotte’s liturgical norms have not been updated since they were issued in 2005 by Bishop Peter J. Jugis, who last year stepped down from the pastoral governance of the Diocese of Charlotte due to health reasons. They were again revised in 2011.

The Rorate Caeli post — written by a user identified only as “New Catholic” — slammed the draft letter as “anti-traditional” and “anti-liturgical.”

Perhaps most notably, the early draft suggested Bishop Martin viewed the celebration of Mass “ad orientem,” with the priest and people facing the same direction during the celebration of the Eucharist, as “not appropriate” and therefore would not be permitted in the diocese. The early draft also proposed limiting Latin in the liturgy to situations where a majority of people understood Latin, with Bishop Martin writing, “I find it disturbing that so many pastors and celebrants are inclined to force an unknown language on their congregation when the Lord’s mission is to engage the lost.”

The draft also addressed a number of liturgical or devotional practices associated with church life prior to Vatican II, including stating that the communal recitation of the St. Michael Prayer at the end of Mass “can lead to the unfortunate doubt that the Eucharistic liturgy is somehow insufficient to bring about the scattering of evil and motivation to do good.”

But the draft also warned against using the reformed Roman missal, promulgated by St. Paul VI fully by 1970 and revised by St. John Paul II in 2002, “as a type of living dynamic that can expand or contract” at the discretion of clergy.

“This troubling dynamic fails to envision the liturgy as the noble work of the entire Church … but degrades it as a personal tool amid a cultural tug-of-war that is reminiscent of what is present in our country today,” wrote the bishop in his draft.

The early draft aimed to discourage telling people that one form of receiving holy Communion — either on the tongue or in the hand — was “better” than the other. It also sought to address liturgical practices that restrict lay people from the distribution of Communion under both kinds, that eliminate the procession of the gifts or exchange of the sign of peace before Communion, or that limit altar serving to boys. (Pope Francis clarified the lay ministries of acolyte and lector, which include the respective roles of altar service and reading at Mass, are proper to men and women in 2021.)

In the document, Bishop Martin also cited as “completely inappropriate” the spontaneous practice prevalent among some Hispanic Catholics of exclaiming “My Lord and my God” during the elevation of the host and the chalice during Mass, saying it was “absent in the rubrics of the Mass.” Diocesan officials clarified that half of their more than 565,000 faithful are Spanish-speaking.

“We tend to preface our decision making with phrases such as, ‘If only our Church went back to…,’ or ‘If only the Church would adapt to….,'” wrote Bishop Martin. “Far from delivering us from the anxiety we wish to escape, it only reinforces its own necessity to cling to this or that, further drawing us away from a real encounter with the true life of Jesus that is exemplified in his Incarnation and communicated to us through the faithful celebration of the liturgy.”

Pointing to resources available from the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, he said that legitimate adaptations can be made “according to the liturgical prescriptions of the Mass,” especially in pastoral situations including children, the elderly and persons with special needs and disabilities.

A few days before the draft document was leaked, Bishop Martin announced that he was consolidating the celebration of Mass in Latin according to the 1962 Roman Missal — commonly called the “traditional Latin Mass” or TLM — from four locations to one centrally located chapel in the diocese, effective July 8, as part of his final implementation of a 2021 apostolic letter by Pope Francis called “Traditionis Custodes.” A diocesan priest will be appointed chaplain for the liturgical form at a designated, yet-unnamed chapel in Mooresville, North Carolina.

The Catholic News Herald, Charlotte’s diocesan news outlet, reported June 3 that the effective date will be Oct. 2, not July 8 as originally announced, because Oct. 2 aligns with a deadline mandated by the Vatican.

The new date allows more time for the transition and for renovation of the chapel designated for the TLM community, Bishop Martin said in an email to priests June 3.

The bishop accepted a request from the four parish priests that he wait until the Vatican’s deadline of Oct. 2 to implement the changes. The extra time will allow the pastors to accompany people through the transition and for renovations to the chapel to be completed, the bishop and the pastors agreed.

“It made sense to start these changes in July when dozens of our priests will be moving to their new parishes and other assignments,” Bishop Martin told the Catholic News Herald. “That said, I want to listen to the concerns of these parishioners and their priests, and I am willing to give them more time to absorb these changes.”

The change affects an estimated 1,000 of the diocese’s total population of more than 565,000 faithful, according to diocesan officials.

Commenters on the Facebook page of the Charlotte Traditional Latin Mass community expressed shock, sorrow and anger over the move.

A group calling itself “Faithful Advocate” posted a May 23 press release on its website, announcing the formation of the group — comprised of “faithful working in consultation with canon lawyers” — as “an apostolate for the advocacy of the rights of the faithful in the Diocese of Charlotte.” The newly launched organization has initiated an online petition asking Bishop Martin to “please reconsider this decision.

“At a minimum, we ask that you postpone its implementation until Rome provides additional clarity,” said the petition. “We ask that you allow space for conversation with the faithful who have been deeply impacted, and who have experienced real spiritual fruit through the Traditional Latin Mass.”

According to the Catholic News Herald, the diocesan newspaper, the diocese’s Construction and Real Estate Office is carrying out a $700,000 renovation of the church building to serve as the new chapel. Upgrades include a new ceiling, flooring, lighting, refitting the sanctuary for Catholic worship, installing pews with kneelers, adding a second restroom, and repainting the entire space.

The Catholic News Herald reported that the Mooresville chapel is considered a geographically strategic location given it lies between the Charlotte Diocese’s two largest population centers: Charlotte and the Triad region of the cities of Greensboro, Winston-Salem and High Point. The outlet also noted the requirements of “Traditionis Custodes” prevent the TLM from being celebrated in a parish, and so the Mooresville chapel was the only location involving an existing church building owned by the diocese that met the criteria.

Bishop Martin said his decree completed the diocese’s implementation of “Traditionis Custodes,” which reversed Pope Benedict XVI’s 2007 apostolic letter “Summorum Pontificum” that had allowed wide permissions for diocesan priests to celebrate Masses with the 1962 Roman Missal.

Pope Benedict had framed the decision as one that would foster the church’s unity by pastorally providing for Catholics attached to the older usage (or “usus antiquior”) and help enrich the celebration of the 2002 Roman Missal as the “ordinary usage” of the Mass.

Pope Francis, however, rolled those permissions back over concerns the older celebration of Mass was being abused to harm the church’s “ecclesial communion,” including undermining the authority of Vatican II and the post-conciliar reform of the Roman rite. He declared the liturgical books promulgated by St. Paul VI and St. John Paul II following Vatican II are “the unique expression of the ‘lex orandi’ (‘law of worship’) of the Roman rite.”

The Vatican published additional instructions in February 2023 clarifying that priests ordained after the publication of “Traditiones Custodes” must receive direct permission from the Vatican to celebrate Mass with the 1962 missal. Bishops also may not establish personal parishes for Catholics attached to the older form of the Roman rite, or allow its celebrations in parish churches.

In 2023, Bishop Jugis had called for “a smooth and orderly transition to the new course charted by Traditionis Custodes” to promote unity. He discontinued TLMs at five parishes with smaller numbers of participants. Four other parishes, which drew greater numbers of faithful to the TLM, were granted a temporary extension by the Vatican’s Dicastery for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments.

The extension expires this year, Bishop Martin noted in his May 23 decree.

This story was updated June 4 at 8:30 a.m.

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