A true servant of God had been called to a greater service in the vineyard of the Lord as news from the Vatican of Pope Francis appointment of our very own Bishop Pablo Virgilio Siongco David of the Diocese of Caloocan as one of the twenty-one new cardinals of the Roman Catholic Church. Known for his meekness, he humbly accepted what he considered as God’s will after a deep reflection. In a story he shared after receiving the news from a priest friend, he said it took him like a whirlwind as he was preparing his homily for a Holy Mass he was to preside later that afternoon. It was only when his priest friend sent him a videoclip of the news where Pope Francis mentioned his name among the twenty-one appointees that he calmed to a soft breeze and took a deep breath to reflect on the Pope’s announcement.
In an earlier commentary by one observer of the ongoing Synod of Bishops on Synodality where more than half of the bishops and cardinals are reportedly in attendance, inferred that the next pope mayhap be in that gathering. Of the attendees, eleven prelates where mentioned, among them was our very own Luis Antonio Cardinal Tagle who is assigned in a key position in Rome. The latest assignment of new cardinals will increase the number of those who are qualified to vote for the next pope as only one cardinal could not vote for being over eighty years of age. The new cardinals will reportedly be installed in a ceremony during a consistory on December 8 this year. The consistory will be the tenth that Pope Francis will convene since he was elected Pope eleven years ago.
Cardinal David was red-tagged by the Duterte administration for his principled stand against the war on drugs where many of the faithful in his diocese were mercilessly killed by police authorities. He openly proclaimed the Word of God on the sanctity of human life and posited for the rehabilitation of drug dependents. For the innocent victims of extra-judicial killings, he called on the government to bring the perpetrators before the bar of justice. Such position reverberated across the country as extra-judicial killings were being carried by law enforcers upon the instruction of the former president. He was once the subject of surveillance by unidentified men reportedly circling the permitter of his diocesan residence.
He was elected CBCP president in 2021 and re-elected in 2023 He was ordained as a priest for the Archdiocese of San Fernando in 1983, and was appointed auxiliary archbishop of the same archdiocese in 2006. He was transferred to the Caloocan diocese in 2015. He was also elected as the next vice president of the Federation of Asian Bishops’ Conferences (FABC) in February 2024, and is set to officially assume the post January next year. Known by his nickname “Ambo”, he David has been a priest for 41 years and a bishop for 18, after receiving a doctorate in theology from the Catholic University of Louvain in Belgium.
His relatives include his brother, sociologist and professor Randy David and his niece, journalist Kara David. He is currently in Rome for the Synod of Bishops on Synodality, will join the group of active Filipino cardinals that consists of Cardinal Jose Advincula of Manila and Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle who is serving in the Vatican. The new cardinal is truly a servant in the vineyard of the Lord.
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