Aguer Urges Repeal of Traditionis Custodes in Argentina
During Pope Leo XIV’s visit, retired La Plata archbishop ties empty seminaries to past liturgical and theological choices and urges liturgical peace.
Archbishop Héctor Aguer, who led the Archdiocese of La Plata from 2000 to 2018, has called for the repeal of Traditionis custodes and a return to Benedict XVI’s Summorum Pontificum, speaking as Pope Leo XIV makes the first papal visit to Argentina since Saint John Paul II’s journeys in 1982 and 1987.
The 83-year-old prelate, in fragile health, said the purpose of the visit is above all to confirm the faithful in the faith. He recalled John Paul II’s 1987 appeal to the Argentine Church, “Arise and shine,” which he considers still unfinished. Catholic self-identification, he noted, fell from 90 percent of Argentines in 1960 to 57 percent today.
Liturgy and ecclesial life
On the liturgy, Archbishop Aguer said the traditional Mass in Argentina suffers “every kind of disdain and restriction,” with authorizations scarce. He described Traditionis custodes among the “draconian” measures of the previous pontificate and proposed restoring the freer framework of Summorum Pontificum.
He rejected attempts to politicize the papal trip amid tensions between part of the hierarchy and the government of Javier Milei, asserting that the Pope “does not come to take sides with any leader.”
The archbishop attributed the severe state of the Argentine Church in large part to the “theology of the people,” which he described as the Argentine version of liberation theology and which, he said, shaped the episcopate under Jorge Mario Bergoglio. Appointments of very young auxiliary bishops, he added, will condition the coming decades. “We have empty seminaries, empty convents and a dramatic shortage of priests,” he lamented, citing the closure of the seminaries of San Rafael and San Luis and noting that some dioceses have “more bishops than seminarians.”
Synodality and prayer for the Pope
On synodality, Archbishop Aguer held that the Church has always defined itself as “communion” and that the Synod of Bishops serves that communion rather than “democratizing” hierarchical decisions. He linked recent processes to a “Church in a state of assembly” promoted in Buenos Aires under Cardinal Bergoglio, and said he expects Leo XIV to bring, along with liturgical peace, limits to “so many deviations.”
He confirmed that his health will prevent him from meeting the Pope. He cited as his greatest work in La Plata the ordination of 49 priests and offered his sufferings for the Church, closing: “May the Lord strengthen the Pope so that he can calm the waters in the Church.”
The remarks were timed to the papal presence in Argentina in November 2026; the interview itself was not dated more precisely in available accounts.