Charlotte's diocese shifts away from cathedral plan
Local Catholic leadership eyes new capital campaign targeting other needs
The following article appeared in the July 21, 2025, edition of The Charlotte Ledger, an e-newsletter with smart and original local news for Charlotte. We offer free and paid subscription plans. More info here.
Charlotte’s Catholic Diocese cools on plans for new cathedral; will instead explore $150M capital campaign to address other needs throughout Western N.C.
The Catholic Diocese of Charlotte would like to have a bigger cathedral than St. Patrick in Dilworth but is making plans for an ambitious capital campaign addressing other needs. (Photo via Wikimedia Commons)
The Catholic Diocese of Charlotte appears to be slowing down plans for a new cathedral, saying instead that it’s exploring a $150M fundraising campaign to meet the needs at parishes, schools and ministries.
The diocese, which covers 46 counties in the western half of North Carolina, said last year that it was planning to build a new cathedral to take the place of St. Patrick in Dilworth, which is too small to serve the area’s growing Catholic population. Although no site has been identified, construction was to have started by 2030, and costs were estimated at up to $100M.
Now, though, the diocese is considering raising money instead for projects that would help address needs and prepare for growth at local levels instead of fundraising for a new cathedral, according to an article published last week in the Catholic News Herald, a diocese publication. It described the campaign as a “broader effort to invest in five key areas: parishes, Catholic schools, land acquisition for future growth, Catholic Charities and under-resourced ministries.”
The article quoted Bishop Michael Martin as saying, “Our planning and research are helping us crystallize what we need to do now to meet the demands of growth and deliver on our mission of spreading the Gospel.”
The article says the diocese is still committed to a new cathedral but that the fundraising for broader needs is taking priority. The new effort would be the diocese’s largest capital campaign since 2013.
Under the leadership of Martin, who was named Charlotte’s bishop in April 2024, the diocese had explored shifting cathedral status to St. Mark in Huntersville — but that idea was met with resistance from Rome, according to a May article in
, an independent national Catholic news site.It quoted an anonymous Vatican source saying: “It was felt that [Bishop Martin] was moving very fast with big ideas for changes to the diocese, and he had only just arrived. He was asked to consider taking time to know the people and the diocese better before deciding on things which could be received as disruptive. … Specifically on the cathedral the desire was for [Martin] to move slowly, much more slowly.” —Tony Mecia
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