Diocese removes cathedral’s kneelers used for Holy Communion

Niwa Limbu • October 7, 2025

The Diocese of Charlotte in North Carolina has removed the portable kneelers used by the faithful to receive Holy Communion at the Cathedral of St Patrick.

The announcement was made on 6 October by the cathedral’s rector, Fr Peter Ascik, according to the Charlotte Latin Mass Community, a lay group which shared news of the change online.

The kneelers had previously been introduced to accommodate those wishing to receive the Eucharist kneeling and on the tongue, a posture long associated with the traditional Roman Rite and maintained by some Catholics at celebrations of the post-conciliar Mass. The sudden withdrawal of the kneelers marks the latest in a series of diocesan measures appearing to discourage such traditional practices.

The Cathedral of St Patrick, a neo-Gothic landmark completed in 1939, is a landmark of the diocese; the removal of its kneelers, while seemingly minor, carries weight in a diocese where attachment to traditional forms of worship has been particularly strong.

In recent months, Bishop Michael Martin has issued a number of instructions affecting both posture and language in the liturgy. In August, he prohibited the use of an altar rail at Charlotte Catholic High School, despite the fact that it had been installed in 2017 in memory of a deceased student and used regularly for daily Mass. Pupils and staff have since been told to receive Holy Communion standing, with the celebrant distributing the Sacrament from outside the sanctuary.

Then in late September, Bishop Martin released a letter restricting the celebration of the Traditional Latin Mass to a single location in the diocese: the Chapel of the Little Flower in Mooresville. Beginning this month, all other public celebrations of the older form of the Roman Rite have been suppressed, thereby ending the presence of the Latin Mass in several large parishes, including St Ann’s and St Thomas Aquinas in Charlotte, which had drawn hundreds of worshippers each week.

Bishop Martin has said that the new arrangements are intended to promote unity in worship and to align diocesan practice with the Holy See’s directives following Traditionis Custodes, the 2021 motu proprio of Pope Francis that placed strict limits on celebrations of the 1962 Missal.

For Catholics in Charlotte, the disappearance of the kneelers, the altar rail ban and the near-elimination of the Latin Mass have together marked a decisive turning point, appearing to signal a new and more restrictive phase in the diocese’s liturgical life.

Photo: Cathedral of St Patrick, Charlotte (Nheyob, Wikimedia Commons)