The Charlotte-area SSPX community has made a big move by securing 26 acres in Iron Station for a major church expansion, and the plan already has real momentum behind it. What started as a long search for the right property is now shifting into a larger vision that includes worship space, support buildings, and room for future growth.
St. Anthony’s in Mount Holly finalized the land purchase on July 9 after spending three years combing through a massive search area and reviewing more than 1,300 properties. Project manager Jim De Piante said the result is a first step toward a church complex that can serve families for generations, with a layout meant to give Catholics a lasting home for traditional worship.
The site sits about 20 minutes northwest of Charlotte, which puts it within reach of the community the parish has been serving. Even with the Vatican’s move against SSPX bishops, later suspended after the Society filed a canonical appeal, the group pressed ahead and kept its focus on building something permanent.
That determination has shown up in the numbers. De Piante has said the chapel has seen steady growth since Traditionis Custodes was released, and the demand for the Traditional Latin Mass in the region has not slowed down just because the structure around it got tighter.
The Charlotte Diocese moved to suppress the remaining TLMs and fold them into a single chapel, and the result was immediate pressure on attendance. When the new diocesan chapel opened, families packed it far beyond capacity, and Bishop Michael Martin later acknowledged that it was never meant to fit everyone who wanted to be there.
St. Anthony’s has been feeling the opposite trend. De Piante said attendance there has continued to rise, with roughly 100 more people attending by late October and early November than had been coming in early July.
The current church can hold 150 in the nave, which means Sunday sung Mass often spills over into other spaces. About 225 people usually show up, so volunteers have stepped in, people have gathered downstairs around a video screen, and the parish has had to improvise just to keep everyone connected to the liturgy.
Plans for the new property are already taking shape. The first building is expected to be a multipurpose space with a large chapel, classrooms, offices, a kitchen, and outdoor gathering areas, while the community also intends to open a graveyard on the land.
After that comes the main church, which is being designed to seat 600. The project is also expected to include residences for priests and sisters, giving the site the kind of full parish life that many traditional Catholic communities want but struggle to find.
The architectural side of the project has its own headline power. James McCrery, known for high-profile design work and described by De Piante as a hardcore traditional Catholic, will shape the complex after reaching out to volunteer his services once St. Anthony’s had already identified him as their top choice.
The parish has made no secret of the spiritual ambition behind all of this. It says the goal is to build a place of “lasting permanence and distinct beauty” that will glorify God, strengthen sacramental life, and stand as fertile ground for saints for years to come.
There is also a practical side to the vision. The community plans to launch Welcome to Saint Anthony’s, a relocation service meant to help new families settle in and feel at home, which is the sort of move that signals a parish looking well beyond Sunday attendance.
Another piece of the project is about devotion, not just buildings. Men from the Holy Name Society are expected to begin clearing a devotional trail through the woods, where Stations of the Cross and Mysteries of the Holy Rosary will line the path and turn the property itself into a place for prayer and reflection.
Before long, the community will submit its next proposal to the SSPX General Council in Menzingen, Switzerland, as it moves into Stage II of the project. The whole effort has the feel of a parish refusing to shrink, choosing instead to plant deeper roots and make room for whatever comes next.
