Bishop Michael Martin announced Tuesday that he will postpone his severe limitations on the Traditional Latin Mass until October.
CHARLOTTE, North Carolina (LifeSiteNews) -- After massive backlash, Bishop Michael Martin of Charlotte, North Carolina, has extended the date that his restrictions on the Traditional Latin Mass will take effect from July to October.
The embattled bishop had decreed last month that the Latin Mass must cease at all four parishes in the diocese that continue to offer it by July 8.
However, Martin announced in an email on Tuesday that he has accepted a request from the priests of the four parishes to delay the restrictions until October 2, the deadline set by the Vatican to implement Pope Francis’ anti-Latin Mass norms in Traditionis Custodes.
Martin said that the diocese "would abide by" any changes to Traditionis Custodes if the Vatican promulgates them, according to the Catholic News Herald.
The bishop has designated a former Protestant chapel adjacent to an “affordable senior apartment community” as the sole location at which the Traditional Latin Mass may be celebrated, the Herald noted.
The diocese is spending $700,000 to renovate the building for “Catholic worship.”
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“It made sense to start these changes in July when dozens of our priests will be moving to their new parishes and other assignments,” Martin told the Catholic News Herald. “That said, I want to listen to the concerns of these parishioners and their priests, and I am willing to give them more time to absorb these changes.”
Popular traditional Catholic publisher TAN Books, which is located in Charlotte, highlighted the news of the extension, adding, “We thank everyone for their prayers and ask for your continued support in the preservation of the Latin Mass!”
WATCH: Father Chris Alar speaks out against suppression of Latin Mass in Charlotte
Martin, who was appointed to the diocese by the late Pope Francis last year, has faced international criticism for his crackdown on the Latin Mass as well as for planned liturgical norms that would have banned the use of Latin even in the Novus Ordo liturgy and other reverent and traditional practices.
The diocese later said that those guidelines, which violate Vatican documents and even those of the Second Vatican Council, were a “draft” and have been revised following pushback.
