As tributes poured in for Pope Francis, two Filipino cardinals, both chosen from the “peripheries,” gave personal reflections on how the late pontiff has changed the Church through an ardent focus on the marginalized of society.
Pablo Virgilio Cardinal David, president of the Philippine bishops’ conference, said the pope’s vision for a more welcoming and listening Church must be sustained.
“I’m really hoping that the direction that has been taken by Pope Francis will be sustained,” David said in an interview. “If not, then maybe the Holy Spirit has a message to us… maybe the Spirit is saying, let’s strive further, have a conversation, and never exclude anybody—even those who disagree with us.”
David was given the “red hat” by Pope Francis in December 2024, plucked out of Kalookan diocese, a non-cardinalate see.
He said Francis’ papacy is about pursuing encounters and keeping an open mind despite differences, and resisting the temptation of the so-called “cancel culture.”
“Just never reduce the faith into an ideology,” David said. “That’s what it means to be Catholic. To be respectful of diversity… our concept of unity is not uniformity.”
Before David, Orlando Quevedo, then archbishop of Cotabato, became the first cardinal in 2014 from Mindanao, the southern Philippines, a quintessential periphery.
The 86-year-old Oblate missionary likened his appointment to “a strike of lightning after dusk, so sudden, so unexpected.”
Reflecting on their work together in Rome for the Synod of Bishops in 2001 to 2004, Quevedo recalled how then-Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio–a soft-spoken Jesuit prelate from Argentina–would gravitate toward “the small Filipino archbishop from Cotabato” during breaks.
“Even then, his call was clear: bring the Gospel to the peripheries,” the now emeritus archbishop of Cotabato said.
As pope, Francis turned that principle into action, Quevedo said, citing landmark documents, Evangelii Gaudium, Laudato si’, and Fratelli tutti, which became guideposts of the Church’s social teaching.
“He reminded us that Creation is God’s dwelling place,” he added.
“Pope Francis was truly a messenger and a sign of peace and hope for the world, a man of humor, who personifies the compassion and kindness of Jesus and demonstrates option for the poor, a man of dialogue, a just, simple, and holy man — the Pope of the periphery.”
“History will consider him one of our greatest popes,” he also said.
