Advocates of abuse victims are rooting for a Filipino pope — and it’s not Cardinal Tagle

ROME (OSV News) — Among 133 cardinals locked in the Sistine chapel, three Filipinos are voting to elect the future pope. While Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle is topping the list of “papabili” in the world press, it’s another Filipino that would please advocates and victims of clerical sexual abuse. His name is Cardinal Pablo Virgilio Siongco David of Kalookan.

Survivors and victim-advocates, speaking ahead of the conclave to elect a new pope, said what they expect from the future pope is to continue to listen to victims but also to hold those in power accountable.

Although considered a “baby cardinal” — only elevated to cardinalate on Dec. 7, 2024, the last consistory that Pope Francis called — Cardinal David made a mark during general congregations that followed Pope Francis’ death and ended May 6, the eve of the conclave.

On May 3, three cardinals told the French Catholic daily La Croix they were struck by a speech from Cardinal David, who is president of the Philippine bishops’ conference.

“One even compared it to Jorge Bergoglio’s 2013 intervention calling the church to go to the ‘geographical and existential peripheries’ — a moment many believe won him the papacy,” La Croix wrote.

Cardinal David is considered a human rights defender in the country.

The prelate’s voice became most strident in August 2017, when three police officers shot 17-year old Kian Delos Santos dead in Caloocan City, which borders northern Manila, as part of Filipino President Rodrigo Duterte’s so-called war on drugs. The officers said he engaged them in a gun battle, but evidence showed he was unarmed and shot from behind while on his knees. Security cameras captured him being dragged off at night to a dark, filthy alleyway by a river where witnesses heard multiple bullets fired.

After then-Bishop David became a voice in the case that shocked the nation, local media reported that he received death threats.

Cardinal David also made headlines in recent months when an international online database of clergy who face allegations or have been convicted of child sexual abuse launched its Philippine listing Jan. 29.

Responding to BishopAccountability.org’s listing of the names of 82 priests and bishops who are either Philippine nationals or foreign nationals and have faced or are facing allegations either in the Philippines or the United States, and sometimes in both countries — Cardinal David said: “If a bishop cannot discipline his erring priests or hold them accountable, he may end up getting disciplined himself by the Pope upon the recommendation of the Dicastery for Bishops.”

Columban Father Shay Cullen, the head of PREDA, a Philippine-based foundation for abused children lauded the cardinal’s message. PREDA stands for People’s Recovery, Empowerment and Development Assistance.

“(He) has made a very beautiful statement, advising that all of these clerical suspects should be referred to the civil authorities, as well as church authorities,” Father Cullen told OSV News in January.

Speaking at a news conference in Rome May 2, also organized by BishopAccountability.org, Father Cullen pointed to Cardinal David as a candidate for the papacy who would understand both the needs of abuse victims and the need of the church to clean up.

“I think it’s time to have a Philippine pope who is a human rights defender and a protector of children,” Father Cullen said.

“I would say that we need a pope, somebody who has become accustomed to the two basic qualities we need in any pope, which is a willingness to disclose the names of child molesters and a willingness to remove them permanently from ministry,” the Irish priest added.

Father Cullen, 82, of Ireland, has been nominated four times for the Nobel Peace Prize and won multiple international human rights awards for his decades of work as an advocate for child victims of exploitation, abuse and sex trafficking.

He said during the May 2 news conference that Cardinal David “is a defender of human rights,” adding that “he has taken up the struggle against Duterte for the killing of children. And he has opposed all of these abuses.”

“He’s very open to demanding accountability from abusive priests, and that they should be charged not only in the church, the church courts, but in the civil courts. That is where justice should be done,” Father Cullen said of Cardinal David.

For Michal Gatchalian, a 44-year-old lawyer who also spoke to the press, like Father Cullen, via videolink from the Philippines at the Rome news conference, made additional comments to OSV News May 8 and said that “it could be a refreshing sight to see Cardinal David on that balcony,” from the “safeguarding perspective, on the standpoint of abuse victims … that would be a very welcome sight.”

Referring to Cardinal David becoming a critic of Duterte’s ruthless killings in his war on drugs, Gatchalian said: “He was not afraid when so many … of us were.”

Gatchalian, who is a victim of clergy sexual abuse and a lawyer advocating for other victims in the country said that Cardinal David, as president of the Filipino bishops’ conference, has “sincerity” toward victims of sexual abuse but “is only one voice” who really wants to hold bishops accountable in the country. “I think that’s what is needed — to change the mindset of a lot of bishops, a lot of church leaders,” he said.

Anne Barrett Doyle, the co-director of BishopAccountability.org, told journalists May 2 that in the Philippines, guidelines dealing with sexual abuse cases have not been published on the website of the bishops’ conference. Referring to a mainstream papal contender, Cardinal Tagle, she said: “If Cardinal Tagle cannot even get his brother bishops from his home country to publish guidelines, what on earth can we expect for him to achieve as pope of a global church?” asked Doyle.

For Gatchalian, “Cardinal Tagle is a beloved, beloved figure here in the Philippines. Make no mistake about it. I love the guy … I named my first son after him.” He said, however, that from “the viewpoint of victims of clerical abuse,” he could not give him “a good mark,” mostly for not being able to lead the church in the Philippines to real change and reform.

The Philippine bishops’ conference said in a May 2 statement  — responding to the Rome press conference and signed by the secretary general, Msgr. Bernardo R. Pantin — that it “expresses profound sorrow and solidarity with all victims and survivors of sexual abuse, especially those harmed by members of the clergy.” “Recognizing the gravity of clerical sexual abuse,” it said, “the CBCP initiated the drafting of the Pastoral Guidelines on Sexual Abuses and Misconduct by the Clergy in the early 2000s.” 

These guidelines, the conference said, “circulated in September 2003, were developed to address allegations and actual cases of sexual abuse and misconduct by clergy in the Philippines. They emphasized pastoral care for victims, the healing of communities, assessment of the accused, and appropriate sanctions for offenders.”

The conference said that Cardinal Tagle “during his tenure as Bishop of Imus and later as Archbishop of Manila, actively participated in the development and implementation of these guidelines. He has consistently advocated for a humble and responsive Church that listens to the cries of the wounded and acts decisively to protect the vulnerable.”

The Philippine bishops said that the conference “remains steadfast in its commitment to transparency, accountability, and the protection of all members of the Church, especially the most vulnerable. We continue to seek guidance from the Holy See and collaborate with civil authorities to ensure that justice is served and that the Church becomes a beacon of hope and safety for all.”

Answering OSV News’ questions in December 2024, ahead of the consistory, Cardinal David, 66, said that being named a cardinal would be formalized in a ceremony in which designates would “be made to wear” the color red as part of their standard garb, including ; among the red skull cap, red sash, red cord around the neck.

“And yes — red socks, too!” he exclaimed in the message. “This is mainly to rub in the call to martyrdom, the call for readiness to shed one’s blood for the Gospel. To think of it mainly as an honor is to totally misunderstand it.'”

Cardinal David said in December that unless the pope says otherwise, “I take it for granted that I remain as bishop of Kalookan, a bishop of the urban peripheries,” and that the pope himself “asked us to get increasingly used to being regarded as ‘servant’ (rather) than to being called ‘Eminence.'”

Doyle, asked about her wishes for the new pope, said that “the only category of bishops and cardinals who have been acculturated to those two minimal child safety steps are from the United States.”

She said: “I know that it is not likely, nor is it probably a good idea for many reasons, for there to be an American pope. But I’m just saying that literally nowhere else in the world have bishops accepted or been allowed to permanently remove abusers from ministry.”

Pressed for a specific name, she said: “I would nominate my own archbishop for better or worse, Cardinal Sean O’Malley from Boston. He is 80. He is too old to vote.”

Gatchalian, who was abused by a priest as a teenager, said during the May 2 press conference: “I will tell the new pope, whoever he is, please continue listening to us.”

“There are voices here crying, asking for help,” he said, “and I will ask the new pope, ‘Hear us, listen to us.'”

This story was updated at 10:35 a.m.

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