Michael Martin new bishop of Charlotte Diocese

TROY HULL

Michael Martin was installed May 30 as Catholic Bishop of Charlotte, which includes 92 churches and 20 schools.

The Catholic Diocese of Charlotte has its first new bishop in 20 years.

Bishop Michael Martin was ordained May 29 and installed May 30 as spiritual leader of the diocese that is home to 530,000 Catholics across western North Carolina. He succeeds Bishop Peter Jugis, 67, who retired after 20 years leading the Charlotte diocese.

“I’m honored to walk with you as we lead this community here in western North Carolina,” Martin said. “I get a chill just thinking about what the Holy Spirit can do in us as we proclaim to our world who Jesus is.”

Martin, 62, has deep roots in Catholic education – as a teacher, coach and school administrator in Baltimore, New York and Durham – and arrives at a time of unprecedented growth in the diocese. He is a priest of the Order of Friars Minor Conventual – the religious order founded in 1209 by St. Francis of Assisi – and most recently served as a parish priest outside Atlanta.

Appointed by Pope Francis, Martin oversees 92 churches, 20 schools and more than 50 ministries and a diverse Catholic population, now more than half of Hispanic origin. Historically Black Our Lady of Consolation in Charlotte is among the diocese’s churches.

Martin’s ordination was witnessed by Pope Francis’ ambassador to the U.S., Cardinal Christophe Pierre, more than a dozen bishops from around the Southeast, hundreds of priests and deacons, and more than a thousand people from the diocese’s churches and schools. The standing-room-only Mass was held at St. Mark Catholic Church in Huntersville.

Martin was formally welcomed to the diocese’s cathedral, St. Patrick in Charlotte – the official “seat” of the diocese and the bishop’s home church.

Background of service

Martin was born in Baltimore, the only boy of four children in a Catholic family. In 1979, when he was 17, he entered the Conventual Franciscan Friars Novitiate in Ellicott City, Md. He graduated with a bachelor’s degree in philosophy from St. Hyacinth College-Seminary (Massachusetts), earned a bachelor's degree in sacred theology from the Pontifical University of St. Bonaventure (Rome), and master’s in education from Boston College.

Martin was a religious studies teacher and coach at St. Francis High School in Athol Springs, N.Y., in 1984-85, then as a transitional deacon at St. Adalbert Parish in Elmhurst, N.Y., in 1988-1989. He was ordained to the priesthood in 1989.

Following his ordination, Martin returned to St. Francis High School as admissions director, teacher and coach, from 1989-94. He then served in several positions at his alma mater Archbishop Curley High School from 1994 to 2010 – including president, principal, admissions director, and teacher and basketball coach.

In 2007 he was the recipient of the Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice award from Pope Benedict XVI for his service to the Catholic Church.

Martin is no stranger to North Carolina, having served as director of the Duke Catholic Center – the official Catholic community at Duke University in Durham – from 2010-22.

He has also held several leadership positions in the church, particularly in Catholic education as a member of multiple school boards including Cardinal Gibbons High School in Raleigh, and worked with Partners in Mission, a Boston-based consulting firm that partners with Catholic schools and institutions to advance the mission of Catholic education.

In 2022, his order assigned him to ministry in the Archdiocese of Atlanta, where he served as pastor of St. Philip Benizi Parish.
 

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