Cardinal: Traditional Latin Mass ‘not an attack on unity or on Church’
Cardinal François-Xavier Bustillo defended the traditional Mass as a source of unity while expressing confidence Pope Leo will offer a ‘fair’ response to ongoing liturgical disputes.
Cardinal François-Xavier BustilloWikimedia Commons
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Mon Jun 29, 2026 - 12:37 pm EDT
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ROME (LifeSiteNews) — A Franciscan cardinal has said the Latin Mass does not threaten the unity of the Catholic Church and expressed confidence that Pope Leo will respond in a way that “is fair and appropriate” to current liturgical tensions.
On June 29, in an interview published in Italian newspaper Il Giornale, Cardinal François-Xavier Bustillo said that celebrating the Traditional Latin Mass should not be regarded as a danger to the unity of the Catholic Church, while also warning against ideological divisions within the Church.
Speaking in Rome after the conclusion of the recent consistory, where he was also presenting his new book, La necessità di riparare (“The Need to Repair”), the Franco-Spanish cardinal addressed questions about the traditional liturgy and the possibility of a schism involving the Society of St. Pius X, stressing that the two issues should not be confused.
The traditional Mass “is not an attack on unity or on the Church,” Bustillo said. “After all, the Church includes the Eastern rite, and even in the West we have many rites: I’m thinking of the Ambrosian rite, the Mozarabic or Spanish rite. The problem arises, in my view, when the search for radicality turns into rigidity, and the ideal into ideology.”
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In his view, the liturgical tensions that have been raging in the Church in recent decades are paradoxical, because “the liturgy has always been a principle of unity.”
Regarding the upcoming episcopal ordinations on July 1 to be carried out by the SSPX without Pope Leo’s mandate – which could cause the entire institute (and, according to some sources, even the laity) to incur automatic excommunication – Spuntoni asked whether it is “now time to abolish the restrictions on the ancient liturgy introduced by Traditionis Custodes for those who are in full communion with Rome.”
Bustillo replied by highlighting diplomatic difficulties: “It would be dangerous to send the message that Francis was not right and that Leo is the one who solves the problems.” Nevertheless, he stressed that, since “in the Church’s tradition and magisterium there is continuity, and there is also a process of refinement,” he is confident that Pope Leo will soon “offer a response that is right and proportionate [in Italian: giusta e aggiustata].”
Recalling Pope Benedict XVI’s decision to lift the excommunications of the Society’s bishops, Bustillo described that move as a powerful expression of the Church’s “paternal and maternal” concern. He said that, if episcopal ordinations were to proceed despite years of dialogue, they would represent “a painful fracture” for the Church. “And it will be an added sorrow, considering that it comes barely a year into a pontificate centered on the words ‘peace’ and ‘unity,’” the cardinal emphasized.
Beyond the current disputes, Bustillo expressed optimism about the future of Catholicism in France. He said that the Church is witnessing renewed interest in spiritual life and a growing desire for God, especially among younger people. That renewed interest, he argued, places a significant responsibility on priests, who must accompany the faithful with “words, time and closeness.”
“When there is closeness, there is authority,” Bustillo said.
The cardinal also welcomed Pope Leo’s planned visit to France in September, saying the country needs a voice of moral and spiritual authority. He concluded by saying that many people in Western societies now recognize that “removing God from public life,” particularly since the cultural upheavals of the late 1960s, “has not produced a better society.”
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- Catholic
- Church
- François-Xavier Bustillo
- Il Giornale
- Liturgy
- Pope Leo XIV
- Schism
- Sspx
- SSPX consecrations
