Until a few weeks ago, students attending Mass in the chapel of Charlotte Catholic High School in North Carolina received the Eucharist at an altar rail installed in 2017 using money raised by a teacher in memory of his late brother. But now priests have been ordered to leave the sanctuary during Communion. If children wish to receive the sacrament in the traditional manner, they must kneel on the floor.
The order came from the bishop of Charlotte, Michael Martin, a Birkenstock-wearing Franciscan who took office last year. He announced in May that the Traditional Latin Mass would be restricted from the four diocesan parishes that celebrated it; instead, the Mass would be offered in a single chapel north of Charlotte, adding hours to the journeys of many faithful who had the temerity to favor the usus antiquior.
Masses at Charlotte Catholic High School use the modern missal, however. Whereas Martin’s edict was in line with Traditionis Custodes, the ban on the use of the school’s altar rails belongs to his personal smorgasbord of prejudices.
The bishop has a list of things he is itching to outlaw. In addition to kneeling for communion, it includes ad orientemworship, Roman chasubles, Latin motets, and candlesticks on the altar. The priest must not use a missal stand, while the faithful must refrain from such pious exclamations as “My Lord and my God” after the consecration.
Recently, I was talking to a U.S. traditionalist who, like me, was a teenager during the late 1970s. “Do you remember the young, mean priests who stamped out old-fashioned piety with such relish?” he asked. “Well, they’re now bishops.” The folksy-but-tyrannical Martin is an extreme example of the breed and, born in 1961, perhaps represents the tail end of the cohort. Unfortunately, it is still comfortably situated in American and European dioceses, as well as the Vatican. And, unlike a previous generation of authoritarian reformers who were confident that the Latin Mass would die before they did, today’s old, mean liberals face a formidable obstacle: the revival of traditional worship by youthful Catholic priests and—an unthinkable prospect before the twenty-first century—lay teenagers.
More: https://firstthings.com/bishop-martin-says-the-quiet-part-out-loud/
