Pope Leo XIV Extends Apostolic Blessing to SSPX Chapel in North Carolina for Its 25th Anniversary

 

From Rorate Cæli

By Peter Kwasniewski, PhD

In a remarkable gesture of pastoral solicitude, Pope Leo XIV has extended an Apostolic Blessing to the Society of St. Pius X's chapel in the Charlotte Diocese of North Carolina:

(click to enlarge)

The document reads:

The Holy Father Leo XIV cordially imparts the requested Apostolic Blessing to Reverend Father John Bourbeau, FSSPX and Faithful of the Fraternitas Sacerdotalis Sancti Pii X of Saint Anthony of Padua Chapel on the occasion of the 25th Anniversary of the Foundation of the Chapel invoking through the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary an abundance of divine graces. Mount Holly, North Carolina, 22nd August 2025, Jubilaeum A.D. MMXXV. (Dated at the Vatican, November 18, 2025, and signed by Card. Konrad Krajewski, Papal Almoner)

To understand the importance of this document, it will be useful to recall the history of St. Anthony’s. In the 19 years before the acquisition of the current St. Anthony’s chapel in the year 2000, the community held Mass in a variety of borrowed and rented spaces. Initially they gathered at a private residence. For another period, they rented vacant space on the second floor of a bank building. Lastly, they rented space at a facility owned by the Junior League of Charlotte. 

In the Spring of 2000 (as it happens, during the Great Jubilee of the Year 2000), a member of the community, John McMahon, noticed a church building for sale on his drive home from work and contacted Mr. Jim De Piante. Mr. De Piante contacted Father Kenneth Novak (SSPX) and the two men went out to view the property as soon as possible. Father Novak contacted the sellers and, after a negotiation, the parties came to terms on the property. The community moved in and celebrated the first Mass on August 22, 2000, the Feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

The initial altar was a table propped up on chairs. First renovations included the construction of a confessional. Father Novak learned of a wooden altar and statue niches for sale in the Midwest. The altar was restored and cleaned, and the first Mass on new altar took place Holy Thursday 2001. A choir loft was built by the men of the schola. The house on the property was renovated into a rectory, with some rooms converted to classrooms. In 2007, the small sanctuary was enlarged. Other interior renovations allowed for an additional four rows of pews. The downstairs was renovated into a social hall. The bell and bell tower were repaired and made to function. Numerous other renovations and repairs have taken place over the years. It is a property to which the faithful have given their best, in return for the ministrations of their spiritual fathers.

How did this Papal Blessing come about?

In the summer of 2025, during the current Jubilee Year, hundreds of priests and religious of the Society of Saint Pius X, along with thousands of faithful, went on pilgrimage to Rome and formed together in solemn procession, publicly professing the Credo as they processed through streets and entered the Holy Doors of the four Patriarchal Basilicas. 

A delegation from St. Anthony de Padua in Charlotte joined this pilgrimage. It was a tremendous grace for participants to attend in a year in which the 25th anniversary of the founding of their chapel coincided with a Holy Jubilee in Rome. After the pilgrimage, representatives of St. Anthony’s visited the Office of Papal Charities (Elemosineria Apostolica) in the Vatican to deliver a written request for a papal blessing for the 25th Anniversary of St. Anthony of Padua. As one can well imagine, the community was overjoyed that our petition for a Papal Blessing was granted. 

Everyone understands the routine nature of these blessings, although it should be noted that institutions or organizations must be approved, it is by no means an automatic process. Someone at the Vatican decided that this chapel could receive the official blessing, in calligraphy, meant for public display. Perhaps the deepest significance—and it counts as a message to the Church at large—is that a community of Catholics who avail themselves of the ministry of the SSPX in a diocese hostile to tradition so strongly desired this papal blessing that they took the steps necessary to request it, and now publicly display it as a profound testimony of filial love for the Holy Father and of the Catholic Church.