Vatican’s excommunication affects Charlotte-area Catholic church. What it means
The Vatican’s declaration last Thursday that Society of St. Pius X bishops, priests and formal adherents are in schism lands squarely on the Charlotte region — where roughly 15 area Catholics traveled to Écône, Switzerland, to witness the consecration of four SSPX bishops that triggered the action.
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The excommunication applies to the newly consecrated bishops, any SSPX priest and anyone who formally adheres to the society. That could include members of St. Anthony of Padua in Mount Holly, the SSPX chapel that has grown from about 150 worshipers at a single Sunday Mass to two overflowing weekend Masses.
Jim De Piante, the chapel’s music director and a lifelong SSPX member, was in the field in Écône when a storm halted the ceremony mid-consecration. He said he does not consider himself separated from the church and expects the action to be overturned through the church’s legal processes.
“I’m going to wake up tomorrow and do exactly the same thing tomorrow that I did today,” he said. “This is not going to have any effect on my life whatsoever.”
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For Catholics attached to the older liturgy, the Charlotte landscape has narrowed. The Diocese of Charlotte’s only approved Traditional Latin Mass is now celebrated at the Chapel of the Little Flower in Mooresville, after Bishop Michael Martin implemented his predecessor’s plan to end other diocesan Latin Masses. The Charlotte Latin Mass Community, which once helped Latin Masses spread to more than a dozen locations, saw that expansion reverse after Pope Francis restricted the older rite in 2021.
The diocese did not comment on the Vatican’s declaration. De Piante said online inquiries to St. Anthony’s spiked the same day.
This report was produced with the assistance of a proprietary tool powered by artificial intelligence and using our own originally reported, written and published content. It was reviewed and edited by our journalists. To learn more about how The Charlotte Observer is using AI in our newsroom, see our policy here.
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This story was originally published July 10, 2026 at 5:00 AM.
