GREENSBORO, North Carolina (LifeSiteNews) — Bishop Michael Martin of Charlotte reportedly refused to give Holy Communion to families who knelt at an altar rail during a recent Confirmation Mass.

The two or three families who approached the rail were passed over for Holy Communion during the Mass at Our Lady of Grace parish in Greensboro, North Carolina, according to a report by AdVaticanum.

One father who attended the Mass with his family told the outlet about Martin: “He was sitting in front of us when we went to the rail and he simply ignored us. All the priests turned their backs on us.”

“Everyone else communicated and we were denied. To be frank, it was very humiliating,” he added.

“Attempts were made to speak to Bishop Martin about incident after the Confirmation Mass, but he did not respond in detail,” AdVaticanum said.

Martin, who Pope Francis appointed to lead the conservative Diocese of Charlotte in 2024, has become notorious for his crackdown on the Latin Mass, altar rails, and kneelers.

He decreed in December that all parish churches in the diocese must stop using altar rails and remove kneelers for the reception of Holy Communion.

That order has faced widespread backlash, and, in January, 30 priests – around 40 percent of Charlotte’s diocesan priests – submitted a dubia to the Vatican’s Dicastery for Legislative Texts challenging the ban.

Last fall, under Martin’s direction, a high school in Charlotte had already removed the kneeler from its chapel, added projector screens for school Masses – defying the U.S. bishops’ liturgy guidelines – and introduced two student extraordinary ministers of Holy Communion.

Martin notably also mandated that the Latin Mass must cease at all four parishes in the Diocese of Charlotte that had continued to offer it, prompting indignation among the faithful.