Cardinal-elect François-Xavier Bustillo, O.F.M. Conv.
By Xavier Sartre and Francesca Merlo
Jul 11 2023
Amongst the 21 men to be created Cardinals by Pope Francis on 30 September is Cardinal-designate François-Xavier Bustillo, the Bishop of Ajaccio in Corsica, who expresses his surprise and awareness that his duty will involve working closely with the Pope and the people of his French diocese.
“I was not at all prepared for this news.”
Cardinal-elect François Bustillo, the Bishop of Ajaccio on the French island of Corsica, was taken aback when he received the news by phone about his creation as a Cardinal, which Pope Francis revealed at midday on Sunday. “At first, I even thought someone might be playing a joke on me,” he says.
The Cardinal-elect, a Franciscan Franco-Spaniard, has been Bishop of Ajaccio for two years. Having received a call to inform him of his recent election as Cardinal in Pope Francis’ upcoming consistory on 30 September, he tells Vatican News’ Xavier Sarte that he feels the full weight of the responsibility that now falls on him.
He admits that, for the moment, he does not really know what becoming a Cardinal will mean in concrete terms, but he already knows that this responsibility is synonymous with “fidelity and closeness to the Holy Father.”
The Cardinal-elect notes that one of the important things that being a Cardinal will involve is his link, as Bishop of Corsica, “with a specific people, a diocese”.
