Bishop Ambo David takes oath as 10th Filipino cardinal

MANILA, Philippines – Kalookan Bishop Pablo Virgilio “Ambo” David took his oath as the 10th Filipino cardinal on Saturday, December 7, joining an elite group of Catholic clergymen tasked to advise the Pope and elect his successor. 

Pope Francis led the Vatican ceremony, called an ordinary public consistory, that formally made them cardinals of the Catholic Church. The consistory began at 4 pm in Rome (11 pm in Manila) on Saturday and lasted for an hour and 15 minutes.

David and 20 other new cardinals, who hail from different parts of the globe, wore red vestments and received their red hats from Pope Francis, symbolizing their willingness to die for the faith.

The oath taken by the new cardinals includes a promise “to remain faithful to Christ and his Gospel,” to obey the Pope and to “cooperate more directly” with him, and “always to remain in communion with the Catholic Church” in their words and actions.

David, 65, pointed out the significance of the color red in a Facebook post hours before the consistory on Saturday. He reposted his November 2020 homily for Red Wednesday to mark “this ‘red day’ of my life and ministry as a bishop.”

Red, David said, “is a dangerous color.” But “it is not right to equate red with just suffering and death” as this “tends to be too morbid and pessimistic.”

“Red is also the color of Valentine’s Day, is it not? And so it is also the color of love, of God’s everlasting love, the love that binds all disciples together in communion, in the one body of Christ,” he said.

“Red is about being ready for the consequences of loving as Jesus has loved us, including suffering and death, if necessary,” added David, who is also president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines.

David is the 10th Filipino cardinal since the first one, Cardinal Rufino Santos, was named in 1960. 

Born in Betis, Guagua, Pampanga, David is an internationally trained Bible scholar who is known for his defense of human rights in the Philippines, especially during the Duterte war on drugs. He obtained his doctorate in theology from the Catholic University of Louvain, Belgium, and attended the Jesuit-run San Jose Seminary based in Ateneo de Manila University, Quezon City.

He is now one of three active Filipino cardinals, or those who are below the age of 80 and can participate in a papal election called a conclave. The two other active Filipino cardinals are Luis Antonio Tagle, pro-prefect of the Dicastery of Evangelization at the Vatican, and Jose Advincula, who replaced Tagle as archbishop of Manila.

Cardinal electors like David are, in theory, also candidates to become the next pope. – Rappler.com