‘Ha?!’ How Bishop David learned Pope Francis named him a cardinal

It was a laid-back Sunday morning, October 6 for Kalookan Bishop Pablo Virgilio David after a grueling first week of a monthlong Vatican summit.

David, president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP), was resting at the Pontificio Collegio Filippino, the home of Filipino priests in Rome. He even slept longer because his Mass for Filipino migrants in Rome was at 4 pm yet. “For the first time in many days, I had eight full hours of sleep,” he recounted.

His phone started ringing by mid-morning...