VATICAN CITY (LifeSiteNews) — The Vatican’s Dicastery for Divine Worship confirmed that it is reviewing an appeal against controversial, anti-traditional Bishop Michael Martin of Charlotte, North Carolina, on liturgical issues.
A letter from the Dicastery for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments dated February 16 states that the dicastery has “received a hierarchical recourse” about Martin’s “apparent refusal” to respond to “requests concerning liturgical matters.”
“The Dicastery will proceed to examine the Acta, which have been assigned protocol number 369/25,” adds the letter, which recently began circulating on social media.
The appeal was filed on February 9, according to the letter.
Last year, Martin notably ordered that the Traditional Latin Mass (TLM) must cease at all four parishes in the Diocese of Charlotte that had continued to offer it, prompting widespread indignation among the faithful. He designated a former Protestant chapel adjacent to an “affordable senior apartment community” as the sole location at which the traditional liturgy may be celebrated.
The small chapel, which cost the diocese $700,000 to renovate for Catholic worship, is located 45-60 minutes from Charlotte, forcing many to drive up to two hours to attend the Latin Mass. Martin acknowledged in a letter to the Charlotte Latin Mass faithful that the chapel “is not meant to be able to accommodate all who are currently attending the TLM.”
Last fall, under Martin’s direction, a high school in Charlotte removed the kneeler from its chapel, added projector screens for school Masses – defying the U.S. bishops’ liturgical guidelines – and introduced two student extraordinary ministers of Holy Communion.
Martin has since decreed that all parish churches in the diocese stop using altar rails and remove kneelers for the reception of Holy Communion. In January, 30 priests – around 40 percent of Charlotte’s diocesan priests – submitted a dubia to the Vatican’s Dicastery for Legislative Texts challenging his ban on altar rails and kneelers.
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The conventual Franciscan bishop, who Pope Francis appointed to lead the conservative Diocese of Charlotte in 2024, also faced intense criticism for planned liturgical norms that would have banned the use of Latin and celebrating Mass ad orientem even in the Novus Ordo liturgy, birettas and other traditional or ornate vestments, altar candles, standing altar crucifixes, missal stands, veiling among women assisting at Mass in “any official capacity,” the ringing of bells to announce the entrance of clergy for Mass, and more.
The diocese later said that those ultra-radical guidelines, which violate Vatican documents and even those of the Second Vatican Council, were a “draft” and were revised after pushback.
Martin has also faced backlash for inviting a heterodox influencer, fellow Franciscan Fr. Casey Cole, to his diocese, despite Cole’s record of undermining Catholic teaching on homosexuality and marriage. The liberal prelate additionally dispensed immigrants “afraid to come to church” from their Sunday Mass obligation last year as the Trump administration moved to crack down on “criminal illegal aliens,” such as murders and sexual abusers, in North Carolina.
Il Vaticano sta esaminando le decisioni di Michael Martin, vescovo di #Charlotte, riguardo alla Liturgia Tradizionale.
Il Dicastero per il Culto Divino ha confermato di aver ricevuto un ricorso formale contro il vescovo per il suo rifiuto di rispondere alle richieste su… pic.twitter.com/Ugh8dddc02
— 𝕊𝕀𝔸𝕋𝔼 𝕊𝔸ℕ𝕋𝕀 (@SiateSanti) April 28, 2026
The Dicastery for Divine Worship is currently led by Cardinal Arthur Roche, the strongly anti-Latin Mass prefect who has overseen the global implementation of Pope Francis’ document Traditionis Custodes, which severely curtailed the celebration of the TLM.
Despite attacks on reverence and tradition by prelates in recent years, traditional Catholic practices, such as reception of the Eucharist kneeling and on the tongue, have grown in popularity among the faithful, especially among young people. In October 2024, the largest survey of Catholics ever conducted in the United States found widespread support for kneeling to receive Holy Communion and reverence in the liturgy in general.