| Michael Thomas Martin | |
| Appointed: | April 9, 2024 |
| Enthroned: | May 29, 2024 |
| Ordination: | June 10, 1989 |
| Consecration: | May 29, 2024 |
| Birth Date: | 2 December 1961 |
| Coat Of Arms: | Coat of arms of Michael Thomas Martin.svg |
| Motto: | Duc in altum (Put out into the deep) |
| Michael Thomas Martin | |
| Dipstyle: | |
Michael Thomas Martin (born December 2, 1961) is an American Catholic prelate who serves as Bishop of Charlotte. A priest of the Order of Friars Minor Conventual, he previously worked as a high school teacher and administrator, a parish priest and pastor, and a college chaplain.
Martin was born on December 2, 1961, in Baltimore, Maryland, to Beverly Beatty and Donald Martin, and attended high school at Archbishop Curley High School. He entered novitiate for the Conventual Franciscans at Ellicott City, Maryland, in August 1979 and professed his solemn vows on August 2, 1985.[1] [2] In the meantime he earned a bachelor's degree in philosophy from Saint Hyacinth Seminary in Granby, Massachusetts, a Baccalaureate in Sacred Theology from the Pontifical University of St. Bonaventure in Rome, and a master's degree in education from Boston College. He was ordained to the priesthood on June 10, 1989, by Bishop John Huston Ricard at St. Casimir Church, Baltimore.[3]
After ordination, Martin worked as a teacher and coach at Saint Francis High School in Athol Springs, New York, from 1989 to 1994, and then served in similar roles and eventually as principal and president at Archbishop Curley High School from 1994 to 2010, leading a $7 million capital campaign and increasing its enrollment after a decline throughout the 1990s.[4] Because of his work at this school he received the Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice award in 2007.
From 2010 to 2022, he served as the director of the Duke University Catholic Center, which serves the approximately 2500 Catholic students studying at the institution.
From 2022 to April 2024, he was pastor of St. Philip Benizi Church in Jonesboro, Georgia.
On April 9, 2024, Pope Francis accepted the resignation of Bishop Peter Jugis of Charlotte due to "chronic but non-life-threatening" kidney issues, and appointed Martin as his successor.[5] [6]
With this appointment, the Conventual Franciscans became the most represented religious community among the active bishops of the United States, the others being John Stowe of the Diocese of Lexington and Gregory Hartmayer of the Archdiocese of Atlanta.[7]
Martin's episcopal consecration occurred on May 29 at St. Mark Catholic Church in Huntersville, North Carolina.[8]