appointed Jugis as the fourth bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Charlotte on August 1, 2003. When his appointment as bishop was announced he was pastor of Our Lady of Lourdes Church in Monroe, North Carolina, and judicial vicar of the diocesan marriage tribunal. He received episcopal consecration at St. Matthew Church in Charlotte on October 24, 2003, from Archbishop John Francis Donoghue, with Bishop William George Curlin and Bishop Francis Joseph Gossman serving as co-consecrators. During the 2004 presidential election he said that politicians who support legal abortion should be denied Holy Communion unless they publicly recant their views. In 2009 he endorsed a bill opposing gay marriage. In 2013 Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests criticized Jugis and Bishop Michael Francis Burbidge for not warning families in their diocese about Raymond P. Melville, a former Catholic priest accused of sexual abuse in Maine and in Maryland, who had moved to North Carolina. On April 23, 2015, Jugis prevented New Ways Ministry co-founder Sister Jeannine Gramick from offering a talk within his diocese. The diocese's spokesperson claimed that Sister Grammick had previously been judged by the Vatican to be in opposition to Catholic teachings on human sexuality. On August 17, 2018 Jugis made a statement regarding allegations of sexual misconduct against Church leaders after a grand jury report named 301 Catholic priests who abused children in Pennsylvania. Jugis stated that investigations were going on in order to take appropriate action, and he encouraged people to pray for all victims of sexual abuse. On December 30, 2019 Bishop Jugis released a list of fourteen priests credibly accused of sexual abuse in the diocese since 1972.
Liturgy
In 2005, following the publication of the Missale Romanum, editio typica tertia, its subsequent English translation, the accompanying General Instruction of the Roman Missal, and the publication instruction Redemptionis Sacramentum, he issued liturgical norms for Diocese of Charlotte.
In 2006 he reminded his priests that if they chose to wash parishioners' feet during Holy Thursday services, the liturgical law mandated that the ceremony was to be reserved to men's feet only.
He supports the celebration of Mass according to the Traditional Latin Mass in his diocese, as has been explicitly permitted by the motu proprio Summorum Pontificum issued by Pope Benedict XVI in 2007.
He offers Mass at his cathedral using the Benedictine altar arrangement and has been seen to offer Mass ad orientem or ad apsidum.
