François-Xavier Bustillo was born on 23 November 1968 in Pamplona in Navarre, Spain,[3] the eldest of four children.[4] He entered the minor seminary of Baztan, Navarre, and then joined the Order of Conventual Franciscans in Padua, Italy, where he completed his work in philosophy and theology at the Istituto Teologico Sant'Antonio Dottore. He earned a licentiate in theology at the Catholic University of Toulouse in 1997. He professed his vows as a Franciscan on 20 September 1992 and was ordained a priest on 10 September 1994.[3]
In 1994 he was one of the Franciscans who reestablished the Convent of Saint Bonaventure in Narbonne, France, which was founded in 1260 and abandoned in 1934. Their mission was to evangelize a region that had been de-Christianized.[4] From 2006 to 2018 he was Provincial Custos of the Conventual Franciscans for France and Belgium, and from 2005 to 2018 carried out his ministry in the diocese of Carcassonne-Narbonne, serving as a parish priest, as a member of the diocesan council from 2007 to 2018, as episcopal vicar for a region of the diocese, and as diocesan delegate for new spirituality movements and for interreligious dialogue from 2012 to 2018. From 2018 to 2021 he was appointed guardian of the convent of Saint-Maximilien-Kolbe in Lourdes, France.[3]
In February 2022, after Paris-Match reported that Bustillo was one of the leading candidates for the position of Archbishop of Paris, he said he had not been contacted and that it was not Church practice to move a bishop so soon. It said it would be "unfair": "Paris needs a man of experience. What I really want is to be here, with you and for you."[6]
In April 2022, Pope Francis gave an Italian-language version of Bustillo's book Witnesses, Not Officials to each of the priests attending the Chrism Mass in St. Peter's Basilica on Holy Thursday.[7][8]
On 9 July 2023, Pope Francis announced he plans to make him a cardinal at a consistory scheduled for 30 September.[9] He is the first bishop of his diocese to be named a cardinal.[10][a] At that consistory he was made cardinal priest of Santa Maria Immacolata di Lourdes a Boccea.[11]
Controversies
In September 2023, the French Catholic magazine Golias published an investigation titled "The Strange Friends of Neo-Cardinal Bustillo".[12] The investigation sheds light on charismatic and mystico-spiritual deviations attributed to Brother Daniel-Marie Thevenet. Cardinal Bustillo is particularly implicated in this matter, as he is one of the three co-founders of the order at the Narbonne convent, alongside Daniel-Marie Thevenet. The magazine therefore suggests that the cardinal could not ignore these deviations, given his close relationship with the latter.
Furthermore, according to Golias, during his tenure as custodian of his community, a youth group affiliated with the community traveled to Syria during the civil war in regions under the control of the Bashar al-Assad regime. This trip was organized and publicized by the association "SOS Chrétiens d'Orient", an organization that had already been questioned by the Church even before the trip took place.[13] The NGO is the subject of a preliminary investigation for complicity in crimes against humanity and war crimes, opened by the French National Anti-Terrorist Prosecutor's Office.[14]
Publications
La fraternità pasquale. Raccontare la vita comunitaria, in Memoria e profezia, EMP, 2013, ISBN978-8825033953
La vocation du prêtre face aux crises: La fidélité créatrice, Bruyères-le-Châtel, Éditions Nouvelle Cité, 2021, ISBN978-2-37582-242-5
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