The bishop’s decision Michael Martin to limit the celebration of the Traditional Latin Mass (TLM) to the only chapel in Mooresville has left hundreds of Catholics in the Diocese of Charlotte divided between the liturgy they love and the parishes they feel as their home. National Catholic Register gathered the voices of some of the faithful who have felt displaced by their bishop in their own parish.
Until October 2, nearly 1,500 faithful regularly attended the Vetus Ordo in four parishes. Today, many feel uprooted. “The bishop’s decision is fracturing our community. We feel forced to choose,” confesses Elizabeth Hadi, mother of five children who is torn between staying in her parish, St. Thomas Aquinas, or traveling every Sunday more than half an hour to the new chapel.
Between the parish and the Traditional Mass
The Hadi family arrived in Charlotte from New York seeking parishes with reverent liturgy. Their children served in both the Novus Ordo and the Traditional Mass. Now they live the contradiction of having to divide their community life. “We love our pastor and want to remain rooted in parish life, but we also know that the Traditional Mass is a treasure we must preserve,” says Elizabeth.
Similar stories are repeated throughout the diocese. Diane Stocker, from St. Ann’s, laments: “It will be a loss either way. If we go to the chapel, we leave our parish behind. If we stay, we lose the liturgy that nourished us”.
Empty churches, overcrowded chapels
The data speaks for itself. At St. Ann’s, the Mass that replaced the Vetus Ordo went from gathering 450 people to barely 200. At Our Lady of Grace, attendance dropped from 300 to 100. Meanwhile, at the Chapel of the Little Flower, an old Protestant temple with capacity for 364 people, more than 600 faithful gathered on the first Sunday after the change, many standing or in saturated parking lots.
Others have chosen to leave the diocese. Some travel to South Carolina or Raleigh to attend the Traditional Mass. Even the Society of St. Pius X, without canonical recognition, reported a 16% increase in its Sunday Masses.
Faithful who do not feel heard
The discomfort is not limited to the decision, but also to the way it was communicated. “Telling us that the TLM divides, when what we lived was always unity and reverence, is unfair,” affirms Elizabeth Hadi. From the Charlotte Latin Mass Community (CLMC) they assure that the bishop never visited the parishes where the Vetus Ordo was celebrated nor dialogued with the faithful. “You have not walked with us,” reproached Brian Williams, co-founder of the group.
A “hole” in the community
The pastors themselves recognize the pain of their parishioners. Father Timothy Reid, of St. Ann’s, explained: “Sunday is the day when a pastor sees his people. Now there will be a void in our community”.
Meanwhile, the faithful remain divided between what they consider a spiritual right and the sense of belonging to their parishes. “The world needs strong Catholic communities right now, and this breaks us in ways we still cannot foresee,” laments Stocker.
The diocese, for the moment, remains silent. But in Charlotte the wound is already open, and many doubt that it can close easily.