Where do devotees of the Latin Mass go when their liturgy is prohibited?

What does a Catholic do when the liturgy he has attended—in some cases, for more than a decade—is banned in his parish church?

That is a question being answered in different ways by approximately 1,500 Catholics in the Diocese of Charlotte, North Carolina (United States), who, until last week, regularly attended the Traditional Latin Mass (TLM) in one of four parish churches.

The practice came to an end on October 2, when Bishop Michael Martin, Charlotte’s leader for less than a year and a half, restricted celebrations of the form of the Mass used before the Second Vatican Council reforms to a single chapel just over 30 miles north of Charlotte.

Bishop Martin said the move sought to bring the diocese into compliance with Tradition of guardsa 2021 apostolic letter from Pope Francis that called for severely restricting MTL for the sake of Church unity.

Following the decision, members of the affected MTL communities in Charlotte who spoke to the National Catholic Register and EWTN News express similar feelings of pain, frustration and alienation. But their courses of action—which range from staying in their parish to traveling hours to attend Mass—are indicative of a nearly impossible choice between the liturgy they love and the parishes to which they belong, a choice that many feel has been unnecessarily imposed on them.

According to la Charlotte Latin Mass Community (CLMC)a group that advocates for access to MTL in the diocese, between 600 and 625 people total attended the two Sunday, October 5, Masses offered at the newly opened Chapel of the Little Flower in Mooresville. The chapel, a converted former Protestant church that seats 364, lacks an organ and has limited parking.

Among those in attendance was the Hadi family: Edwin, Elizabeth and their five children, ages 5 to 17. The family moved to Charlotte from New York City six years ago in part because of the reverent parish liturgies they found in the diocese. His four sons regularly served in both the MTL and the post-Vatican II Mass (New order) at his parish, St. Thomas Aquinas in Charlotte.

But the family of seven’s attendance at the MTL chapel this past Sunday was not without consternation. According to Elizabeth, her children felt torn between participating in MTL and attending their parish, with one son even begging his parents to allow him to walk more than 7 miles so he could serve at Mass at St. Thomas Aquinas.

The Hadis plan to split Sundays between chapel and their parish as they continue to pray for clarity.

“We love our pastor and want to remain rooted in parish life, but we also know that MTL is a precious gift that we must preserve,” Elizabeth told the Register. “The bishop’s decision is fracturing our harmonious community, and I know many other families are also struggling with how to handle the change.”

“A loss either way”

In a letter dated September 26Bishop Martin acknowledged that MTL devotees in Charlotte “feel attached” to their parishes and wants them to “continue to be committed to them.” To that end, no programs or sacraments will be offered beyond Mass on Sundays and holy days of obligation at Little Flower. And no collection will be taken to improve the chapel.

“I encourage you to view the Little Flower Chapel as you would view a sanctuary chapel to which you might occasionally come for Mass, while regularly participating in the life of the parish to which you belong,” the bishop wrote.

However, not everyone sees it the same way.

“We love our parish, but we need to go where the Latin Mass is,” said Kimberly Perry, who attended the latest MTL held at St. Ann’s in Charlotte with her husband on Thursday. a EWTN News in Depth. “So we’ll go to Mooresville, and we’ll be sad we’re not here.”

CLMC, which has long worked with parish staff to measure attendance at traditional Latin Masses in the diocese, said attendance at Masses New order that replaced the parish MTL was scarce this past Sunday.

At St. Ann’s, attendance at the 12:30 p.m. Sunday Mass, now a New order with the same sacred music that was offered at the MTL, dropped from 450 regular attendees to 200. Similarly, only 100 people would have attended the liturgy New order replacement at Our Lady of Grace in Greensboro, instead of 300.

In some cases, Catholics are not just leaving their parish to attend MTL on Sundays: they are leaving the state.

While many who had attended the now-banned MTL at St. John the Baptist in Tryon will remain in the parish to fulfill their Sunday obligation, some crossed the border into South Carolina to attend the MTL this past Sunday. The 50 minutes to Prince of Peace Catholic Church in Taylors is a much shorter trip than the two hours to the Diocese of Charlotte MTL chapel.

“It’s not what we want to do at all. We’ll do anything to avoid it, but that’s what we’re going to do for the moment,” Peter Brunk told the Register.

Similarly, CLMC Facebook Page Members reported that some Our Lady of Grace parishioners crossed diocesan boundaries to attend MTL at Holy Name of Jesus Cathedral in Raleigh.

Back in the Charlotte metro area, the closure of parish MTLs led some to travel another kind of distance. CLMC reported that attendance at two Sunday MTLs offered at St. Anthony of Padua, a Charlotte-area chapel run by the canonically irregular Society of St. Pius X, increased from about 275 to 320, a 16% increase.

But for some, the distance—whether geographical or ecclesial—is simply too great. Limited finances, unreliable transportation and the difficulty of traveling with a car full of children have been cited as reasons why Charlotte Catholics who previously attended MTL will likely stay at their parish for Sunday Mass.

This is true even for parishioners of St. Thomas Aquinas and St. Ann’s, which are about a 30 to 40 minute drive from the new chapel.

Diane Stocker of St. Ann’s, for example, said the trip to and from Mooresville on Sundays after her husband has been on the road all week for work means they will only be able to attend the MTL “on occasion.” Whether the couple is at their parish without the MTL or attending the liturgy they love away from St. Ann’s, he said, “it will be a loss either way.”

“The world needs strong Catholic communities right now, and this is going to divide us in ways we can’t even fully predict,” Stocker, who has attended MTL at St. Ann’s since it was first offered on Sundays in 2013, told EWTN News.

Lack of listening?

For many members of Charlotte’s MTL community, feelings of division have been compounded by the way Bishop Martin communicated his decision. Although he wrote to the Latin Mass community in his September letter that he has “heard your stories of faithfulness and the ways in which the LTM has enriched your spiritual paths,” many members do not feel especially heard.

“The letter was difficult to read,” Elizabeth Hadi shared. “Being told that MTL is divisive and therefore should be restricted when that has categorically not been our experience — nor the experience of anyone we know — was painful.”

Hadi said Bishop Martin never went to St. Thomas Aquinas to meet with the MTL community there. If he had, he said, he would have witnessed “deep reverence, transcendent music, a plethora of enthusiastic and focused altar boys, and such a beautiful and lively variety of parishioners, college students, growing families, elderly couples and a diversity of ethnicities worshiping with joy, devotion and harmony.”

Brian Williams, co-founder of CLMC, said Bishop Martin also did not visit the other three MTL parish communities.

Similarly, Williams said a letter-writing campaign to Bishop Martin when he first announced his intention to restrict MTL in May only garnered form response letters from the diocese.

“You have not walked with us,” Williams said of Bishop Martin. “We haven’t met you yet, and you haven’t made any effort to get to know us.”

According to CLMC, pastors from the four parishes that had offered the MTL met with Bishop Martin on August 28 to make a final request to reconsider the restriction. The bishop, who had previously intended to restrict parish MTLs in July but postponed following public backlash, moved forward with its implementation.

As of press time, the Diocese of Charlotte did not respond to a request for additional comment.

Michael Kramer, a St. Thomas Aquinas parishioner and father of five children under the age of 12, said he has “never felt less connected” to his bishop.

“I don’t see how you can rebuild a spirit of trust and unity even if the rules are rolled back,” said Kramer, who attended Little Flower this past Sunday and will continue to do so going forward. “This could and should have been avoided.”

A void in the community

In Bread Not Stonesa film about the Latin Mass community in Charlotte released last month, a local LTM devotee said the idea of ​​separating parish life from liturgical attendance was like living a “double life.” Another compared it to a “forced divorce.”

For his part, Father Timothy Reid, parish priest of St. Ann’s, has recognized the difficult position in which many of his parishioners find themselves.

In a Sept. 28 letter, he urged those who will attend Little Flower to “please remember that St. Ann’s remains your parish home, and that the Latin Mass chapel will act as a kind of extension of our parish.”

“That said, it is still difficult,” he said in Bread Not Stones. “Because as a pastor, you want to see your people. And Sunday is when you see your people. And here there will be a void in our community.”

Translated and adapted by the ACI Prensa team. Originally published in National Catholic Register.