SSPX community in Charlotte acquires 26 acres for church expansion project

The world-famous architect James McCrery will be designing a church complex for the SSPX community of Charlotte, North Carolina.

(LifeSiteNews) — A Society of St. Pius X (SSPX) community on the outskirts of Charlotte, North Carolina, recently acquired 26 acres of land for a church expansion project. Undeterred by the Vatican’s announced excommunications of the Society’s bishops — which have since been suspended following the SSPX’s filing of a canonical appeal — the community of St. Anthony’s in Mount Holly obtained on July 9 a deed for 26.14 acres of land in Iron Station, about a 20-minute drive further northwest of Charlotte.

“This milestone was achieved as the result of a 3-year search over a 3,000 square-mile search area that included analysis of more than 1,300 properties,” said Jim De Piante, project manager for the new St. Anthony’s church. “We hope this first step in our master plan to build a beautiful and spacious church complex on the property will ensure that the Catholic faithful will have access to their birthright unencumbered in the future.” De Piante previously told LifeSiteNews their chapel has experienced slow but steady growth since Traditionis Custodes was published.

The motu proprio, issued by Pope Francis, states that Traditional Latin Masses (TLMs) are not to be celebrated in “parochial” churches, and Bishop Michael Martin accordingly announced in May that the four remaining TLMs in the Diocese of Charlotte were to be suppressed and merged into one new chapel. The suppression took effect October 2, when families packed the new diocesan TLM chapel in Mooresville to overflowing, numbering 625 people. However, the chapel, Little Flower, only seats about 350 people.

Bishop Martin has admitted it is not meant to fit all the TLM-goers in the diocese, and attendance at Little Flower has since plummeted. Meanwhile, attendance at the SSPX Mass at St. Anthony’s has only grown, as numbers shared by De Piante show. By late October and early November, about 100 more people were attending St. Anthony’s than had been in early July.

The church is currently built to seat 150 in the nave, causing overflow during Sunday’s sung Mass, when 225 people typically attend. De Piante told LifeSiteNews that a downstairs area with a large video screen seats additional people, and men volunteer to stand during the Mass. De Piante has shared that over the coming months, the community will make plans to construct the first building of the project, “a multipurpose building that will contain a large chapel, classroom and office spaces, a kitchen, and an outdoor space.” The community is also planning to open the graveyard on the property.

Afterward, construction of the main church will begin, De Piante told LifeSite. The church is planned to seat 600 people. The world-famous architect James McCrery, who did the initial designs for President Trump’s ballroom, will be designing the complex, which will also include residences for priests and sisters.

De Piante described McCrery as a “hardcore traditional Catholic,” and shared that he reached out to St. Anthony’s to volunteer to design their new church after they already decided his was their first choice. The community has shared the following as their vision for the project: We will create a place of lasting permanence and distinct beauty. It will glorify God in its magnificence, and it will serve as a font of sacramental grace and Christian life for His people for countless generations.

It will be the seedbed of saints. De Piante has also shared that the community will be launching Welcome to Saint Anthony’s, “a white glove relocation service to help newcomers get settled in the community and at Saint Anthony’s.” The community is currently preparing to submit a proposal to the SSPX General Council in Menzingen, Switzerland, for Stage II of its project.

The men of the community’s Holy Name Society will shortly begin clearing a “devotional trail” in the woods on the new property, where fourteen Stations of the Cross and fifteen Mysteries of the Holy Rosary will be erected along the trail. Readers can get a glimpse of liturgical life at St. Anthony’s on its Instagram, Facebook, and X social media pages, and find Mass times on its website.