Getting to Know The New Cardinal

I would like to honor the newly-appointed Filipino Cardinal in this column and join the Catholic Church in rejoicing the choice of Cardinal Pablo Virgilio “Ambo” David by Pope Francis, joining Cardinals Luis Antonio Tagle and Jose Advincula.

I had been reading up about Cardinal Ambo David, and learned along the way that he is in fact the 10th Filipino Cardinal since the first one, who was Cardinal Rufino Santos, named in 1960 by Pope Saint John XXIII. He is also the brother of renowned sociologist, journalist and professor at the University of the Philippines, Randy David.

Cardinal Ambo is a native of Guagua, Pampanga, and has been a priest for 41 years and a bishop for 18, most of those years spent serving the poor and the marginalized. He is the current President of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) and his most recent assignment was as Bishop of the Diocese of Kalookan. He is a product of Jesuit education, having earned his Pre-Divinity degree at the Ateneo de Manila University and his Masters degree in Theology at the Loyola School of Theology. He completed his doctorate in Sacred Theology, graduating as Summa Cum Laude at the Catholic University of Louvain in Belgium.

Bishop Ambo was a staunch defender of human rights and was known for his criticism of former President Rodrigo Duterte’s war on drugs. At the time of the pandemic he said this famous quote: “We are in the same storm but not necessarily in the same boat”- a reflection of his deep receptivity and sensitivity to the plight of those who are suffering, He describes himself as a pastor whose main task is “ to evangelize, to engage in mission and bring people to Christ...to make him personally known by people.” It is said that his episcopal motto is “kenosis”- a Greek word that means emptying”- modelling the great El Salvadoran Bishop Oscar Romero in his emptying of himself and his service to those who are suffering.

QUOTATION OF THE WEEK:

“THE BEST WAY TO FIND YOURSELF IS TO LOSE YOURSELF IN THE SERVICE OF OTHERS”

MAHATMA GANDHI

FOR OUR WORD OF LIFE:

“WHOEVER WANTS TO SAVE HIS LIFE WILL LOSE IT; BUT WHOEVER LOSES THEIR LIFE FOR ME WILL FIND IT”

MATTHEW 16:25