As a Catholic who wears a veil, kneels for communion, and longs for the transcendent beauty of Latin chant to permeate every element of the Novus Ordo Mass, the recent actions of Bishop Martin of the Diocese of Charlotte have left me devastated for my fellow Catholic faithful. His abrupt termination of the Traditional Latin Mass (TLM) at four parishes, banishment of the TLM to a Protestant center, and a leaked memo revealing radical liturgical reforms feel like a direct assault—not only on the traditions I cherish but on the very heart of our faith: the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist. Perhaps we should not be surprised by Bishop Martin’s progressive agenda: a year ago, Pope Francis overrode the Nuncio and the Prefect of the Dicastery of Bishops to install him as bishop of Charlotte, a move that spoke volumes about his alignment with a modernizing vision for the Church. Recently on War Room with Steve Bannon, it was reported Bishop Martin was a known proponent of Project 2030, a radical plan to align with a secular, globalist framework that poses a threat to the Church’s traditional mission and doctrines, and that his earlier moratorium on kneeling at the altar and placing crosses on the altar foreshadowed the current crisis.
Now, as of June 3, 2025, his actions threaten to alienate a generation of young Catholics who yearn for the reverence and vertical orientation of traditional worship, leaving many of us wondering what the future holds under his leadership. Is it any wonder why nearly 16,000 Catholics in the Real Presence Survey—the largest Catholic survey of its kind—found the root cause of disbelief in the Real Presence was a lack of humility and reverence in the presence of the Eucharist and the clergy’s casual attitude toward it? Bishop Martin’s reforms, delivered with a tone of seething hostility in his memo, only deepen this crisis, belittling those of us who simply want to worship God and our Eucharistic Lord with reverence.
A Crushing Blow to the Faithful
Bishop Martin’s decision to end the TLM at four parishes and confine it to one remote location—feels like a cruel rejection of those who find spiritual depth in the ancient liturgy. Not long ago, Charlotte boasted of 20, then 9, then 4 and soon to be one TLM location.
While facing pressure from the faithful, Bishop Martin recently flinched, pushing the date of this consolidation from July to October 2, 2025, at a chapel in Moorseville (a protestant center being repurposed for Catholic use), but the wound remains deep.
On June 3, 2025, the Diocese of Charlotte announced that Bishop Martin decided to accept the request of four priests to extend the celebration of the TLM until October, following a meeting between Cardinal Roche, Prefect for the Congregation for Divine Worship (CDW), and Pope Leo, as reported in the Bollettino. Bishop Martin stated, “In the interim, should the Vatican issue any official changes to Traditionis Custodes, the diocese would abide by the instructions.” This decision came on the same day Pope Leo met with Cardinal Roche, suggesting possible Vatican influence—potentially a call from the nuncio encouraging Bishop Martin to grant the extension. There is no proof this is what happened but it appears from all observing this is what occurred. While this delay offers a temporary reprieve, the underlying tension remains.
The TLM, with its sacred silence, ad orientem posture, and ancient prayers dating back 1500 years, draws us upward, orienting our hearts toward God in a way that feels increasingly rare in modern worship. For someone like me, who kneels to receive the Eucharist on the tongue and covers my head as a sign of humility before the Blessed Sacrament, and yearns for beauty and the sacred this move is a profound loss. It’s not about “looking back,” as Bishop Martin has claimed, or how the TLM causes division in what many are calling gaslighting talking points. It’s about restoring holiness and adoration to the Mass, ensuring the liturgy reflects the awe we ought to feel in the presence of Christ Himself.
But this isn’t just about me or those who share my practices. I’ve spoken with countless young Catholics—teenagers, college students, and young adults—who are drawn to the reverence—and yes, the TLM—precisely because they offer something the modern world lacks: a sense of the sacred. These young people, often raised in a culture of noise and distraction, tell me they crave the quiet reverence of the TLM, the Latin chants that echo centuries of worship, and the physical acts of devotion like kneeling for communion and receiving on the tongue. They want a faith that feels timeless, not trendy. Yet Bishop Martin’s actions seem designed to strip that away, replacing a vertically oriented worship—centered on God—with a horizontal one, focused on the community. His reforms, as revealed in the leaked memo drafted during Pope Francis’ lifetime, discourage kneeling and communion on the tongue, ban sacred music like the Salve Regina and praying the St. Michael Prayer, and impose changes that prioritize the communal over the sacred. For young Catholics – or anyone — seeking depth, this feels like a betrayal.
Gaslighting and the Denial of Reverence
Adding insult to injury, Bishop Martin has issued talking points that dismiss our concerns as backward or divisive, framing his crackdown as a step toward unity. This gaslighting—implying that our desire for reverence is somehow at odds with the Church’s mission—cuts deep. His statements carry an undercurrent of threat, suggesting that those who cling to tradition are out of step with the Church’s direction. But reverence for the Eucharist isn’t a matter of nostalgia; it’s a matter of faith. The Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist is the source and summit of our worship, and practices like kneeling, receiving on the tongue, veiling, and chanting in Latin are not mere aesthetics—they’re acts of adoration that affirm this truth. By discouraging them with a memo that belittles our practices and shows a seething hostility toward our way of worship, Bishop Martin risks undermining the very doctrine he’s called to uphold.
The Leaked Memo: An Attack on the Eucharist
The leaked memo from Bishop Martin’s office, prepared while Pope Francis was alive and obtained exclusively by Rorate Caeli, reveals a chilling vision for the Diocese of Charlotte—one that undermines the reverence at the heart of Catholic worship. Titled “Liturgical Renewal for a Synodal Church,” the document is laced with a tone of seething hostility, using condescending and derogatory language to belittle traditional practices that honor the Eucharist. It discourages kneeling for communion—mocking it as “absurd” and stating no minister may claim it’s more reverent than standing—and reception of the Eucharist on the tongue, which Bishop Martin also strongly discourages. Kneeling, a biblical sign of humility before Christ (Matthew 2:11), and receiving on the tongue, a practice rooted in reverence for the consecrated hands of the priest as taught by St. Thomas Aquinas, are foundational to traditional worship. The memo further proposes a host of reforms: banning altar rails, which provide a sacred boundary and support for kneeling communicants while catching particles of the host with a white cloth; issuing a blanket condemnation of the use of Latin in the Novus Ordo as fostering “unacceptable” ideas, despite its role as a unifying sacred language; forbidding traditional vestments like birettas and Roman chasubles, which symbolize the priest’s role as alter Christus; and discouraging priests from praying before or after Mass, prayers like the Ave Maria Purissima that prepare their hearts for the sacred act. It also calls for projectors to display lyrics and homilies, laying the cross flat on the altar instead of elevating it to remind us of the Mass’s connection to Calvary, removing candles that symbolize Christ as the Light of the World, placing the missal directly on the table, and eliminating bells that signal sacred moments.
The memo’s micromanaging nature, with an unmistakable anti-traditional bent, is evident in its exhaustive list of prohibitions, as if Bishop Martin seeks to erase every trace of the Church’s tradition – or what we all know to be Catholic. The use of projectors in the sanctuary is particularly troubling – hearkening us to visions of mega protestant churches. The sanctuary should direct all attention to the altar and crucifix, but a glowing screen distracts the faithful, turning the Mass into a visual entertainment display rather than a sacred encounter. It secularizes a space meant to reflect the heavenly liturgy, diminishing the atmosphere of reverence and potentially leading to liturgical abuses, such as displaying inappropriate content. For someone who claims to be pastoral, Bishop Martin’s memo lacks all pastoral sensitivity, showing a cruel disregard for the pain these changes inflict on those who cherish literally more than a thousand years of tradition. As someone who believes the liturgy should lift us toward God, not tether us to the horizontal plane of human interaction, I see this as a direct attack on the Real Presence. By belittling practices that adore Christ in the Eucharist and imposing changes that prioritize the communal over the sacred, what message are we sending about His true presence among us?
The Diocesan Newspaper: A Glaring Omission
The recent diocesan newspaper, published this past weekend, featured two telling spreads that only deepened my unease. The first, a glossy two-page feature on the upcoming Eucharistic Congress in Charlotte, should have been a celebration of the Eucharist’s centrality in our faith. Instead, it felt shallow: the promotional images showed smiling attendees and a monstrance (no adoration), but there were no depictions of Catholics kneeling to receive the Eucharist, no tabernacle in sight, no elevated crucifix, no candles, and no priest performing the consecration—the most sacred moment of the Mass. These omissions align with Bishop Martin’s memo, which discourages kneeling, flattens the cross, removes candles, and prioritizes a horizontal, community-focused liturgy over a vertical, God-centered one. Where in the world is the adoration, Bishop Martin? We don’t adore each other! We are in Church and with our Eucharistic Lord to adore Him.
The second spread, another two-page feature, seemed designed to rehabilitate Bishop Martin’s reputation amid the fallout from his recent actions. Titled “Go Deep!” and filled with multiple photos of him—11 to be exact—in various pastoral settings—blessing, teaching, and smiling—it struck me as narcissistic, an attempt to portray him as a compassionate leader rather than address the pain his decisions have caused. Together, these spreads reveal a diocese more concerned with optics than with fostering true reverence for the Eucharist.
A Litmus Test for Pope Leo—and the Future of the Church
Bishop Martin’s actions have not gone unnoticed. Secular outlets like The New York Times, National Review, and The Gateway Pundit have covered the controversy, highlighting the damage he’s done to his credibility and the unity of the diocese. But the real test lies with Pope Leo, the first American Pope, whose response will signal whether the Church will prioritize reverence and adoration or allow bishops like Martin to suppress the sacred.
The meeting between Cardinal Roche and Pope Leo on June 3, 2025, coinciding with Bishop Martin’s decision to extend the TLM, raises hope that Pope Leo may be considering the future of Traditionis Custodes. This temporary reprieve in Charlotte could be a step toward broader change, especially in places like Detroit and Chicago, where TLM communities face similar restrictions. However, if the TLM is fully ended at diocesan parishes by October, some may close as Catholics turn to barns and attics for worship, having been banned from parish churches like “smelly sheep,” as noted by concerned observers. I’m praying the nuncio sends a directive to all dioceses to maintain the TLM, ensuring its place in the Church’s liturgical life.
Young people, in particular, are watching. They’re the future of the Church, and their hunger for beauty, the transcendent, and reverence cannot be ignored. If Pope Leo fails to act, it will embolden other bishops to follow Martin’s lead, potentially driving away a generation that longs for a faith rooted in the sacred—especially as the memo’s reforms, like banning Latin, prayers, traditional vestments, and sacred elements like blessed candles and bells, make the liturgy feel more like a secular communal gathering than a sacred encounter with projectors and a flattened cross.
Why does Bishop Martin, who claims to be pastoral, show such a lack of sensitivity in a memo that feels downright cruel? His use of derogatory language—mocking kneeling as “absurd,” issuing a blanket condemnation of Latin as “unacceptable,” and aggressively micromanaging every detail to erase tradition—reveals a deep-seated hostility toward those of us who seek to worship with reverence. It feels as though he views our devotion as a threat to his vision of a modern, synodal Church, dismissing our practices without any attempt to understand the pain his reforms cause. This lack of pastoral care, coupled with his anti-traditional bent, paints a picture of a bishop more interested in imposing his will than shepherding all his flock, leaving those who yearn for the sacred like me feeling attacked for our love of the Eucharist. As we await Pope Leo’s response on this critical issue, I can only pray that the heart of our worship—the Eucharist—will be defended, and that generations to come will be free to adore Him in the beauty and splendor to which we have grown to love.