KALOOKAN Bishop Pablo David was formally elevated to the College of Cardinals during a consistory on Saturday, Dec. 7. at St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican.
David, also president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP), is the 10th Filipino to be named cardinal.
During the ceremony, David donned a red biretta, cassock, and mozzetta, and a cardinal’s ring given by the pontiff.
Traditionally, cardinals wear scarlet to represent the blood of Christ and martyrs.
In a Facebook post just before the consistory, David reposted a 2020 Red Wednesday homily where he reflected on the significance of the color.
“It is a celebration that uses the color more appropriately—the color of martyrdom, the color of fearless prophetic witnessing, even at the price of so much persecution, or even at the price of death,” he said.
“It is the liturgical color we use to celebrate the passion and death of John the Baptist. It is the color we wear when we celebrate the passion and death of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. It is the color that we wear to honor our courageous martyrs.”
The CBCP president has been assigned to the deaconry of Transfiguration of Our Lord Jesus Christ as his titular church in Rome to signify his new post as cardinal.
Along with 20 other appointees, David recited the Creed and an oath of fidelity and obedience to the Pope and his successors.
In total, the Church now has 256 Cardinals, 141 of whom are electors and 115 non-electors.
As cardinals, they are now the highest-ranking prelates after the Pope and will be eligible to vote in a future conclave that chooses Pope Francis’ successor.
David joins two other Filipino cardinals eligible to vote in a future conclave, pro-prefect of the Vatican’s Dicastery for Evangelization Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle and Manila Archbishop Jose Advincula.
A native of Guagua in Pampanga, David was ordained priest for the Archdiocese of San Fernando in 1983 and became auxiliary bishop of the same see in 2006.
He was appointed bishop of Kalookan in 2015.
A biblical expert, David was elected president of the CBCP in 2021 and was reelected in 2023.
When the announcement of his cardinal appointment was made on Oct. 6, David was in Rome leading the Filipino delegation to the Synod on Synodality, where nearly 400 delegates voted on a set of recommendations involving some of the most contentious issues facing the Catholic Church.
