[Pope Watch] Cardinal David: Cursed by Duterte, blessed by Francis

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In an interview with Rappler, Cardinal Pablo Virgilio David recounts a surprise blessing by Pope Francis during the Duterte years

MANILA, Philippines – Before he faces Michelangelo’s The Last Judgment during the conclave at the Sistine Chapel, Cardinal Pablo Virgilio David has seen evil at its worst and goodness at its best. 

In late 2018, then-president Rodrigo Duterte tagged him as a potential drug suspect and, weeks later, threatened to chop off the head of any bishop who was into drugs. This forced David, one of the staunchest critics of Duterte’s drug war, to stop his nightly routine of praying the rosary while walking around his cathedral.

Little did he know that Pope Francis, through the Vatican’s Secretariat of State, was following news about “bishops in crisis” like him.

He realized this in May 2019, when Filipino bishops visited and had a dialogue with Francis in Vatican City.

“During the dialogue, when I was speaking, he interrupted me and said, ‘Wait a minute, you are that bishop? I’ve heard so much about what’s happening in your diocese,’” David recalled in an interview with Rappler on April 22, before he flew to Rome for the conclave.

The Pope surprised him again after this encounter. When he and the bishops were on their way out of the meeting room, David told Francis, “Adios, Santo Padre (Goodbye, Holy Father).”

“He pulled my hand and he said, ‘Wait a minute, can I bless you?’” the cardinal said.

“My heart was crushed. Can you imagine the Holy Father himself offering to bless you? I will never forget that,” David said. (Watch his Rappler interview below.)

This 66-year-old biblical scholar, cursed by Duterte and blessed by Francis, is one of the three Filipino cardinals set to elect a new pope in the upcoming conclave.

CNN has included David in its papabile list, alongside another Filipino, Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle. 

David’s experience in the peripheries — defending Duterte drug war victims and establishing “mission stations” to serve the poorest parts of his diocese — is in keeping with Francis’ call to be “shepherds with the smell of the sheep.”

Read and watch the following Rappler articles and videos on David through the years:

• PROFILE: Cardinal Pablo Virgilio David, shepherd of his slaughtered sheep
• [The Wide Shot] Cardinal Ambo David, the shepherd who wore red
• [Closer Look] God’s love and justice: Lessons from Cardinal-elect David
• Rappler Talk: Bishop Ambo David on killings and ‘death of conscience’

David, to be clear, has warned against treating the conclave like a political contest, asserting that “there are no candidates in a conclave.” This has not stopped Filipinos, however, from posting messages of support for him and the two other Filipino cardinals joining the papal election at the Vatican.

The most that David could say, for now, is to encourage Filipinos to pray for the cardinal electors.

In his interview with Rappler, the cardinal said he himself is praying for a new pope who would “sustain the vision of a synodal church in a mission” — a listening church. 

“Our image is that of preachers, ‘you have to listen to us.‘ But before we can ask people to listen to us, we have to be ready to listen to people ourselves,” David said. – Rappler.com