MANILA, Philippines – Filipino Cardinal Pablo Virgilio David downplayed talks about “popular candidates” in the upcoming conclave, and said a papal election is unlike the political processes seen in different parts of the globe.

David left Manila for Rome on Thursday morning to attend Pope Francis’s funeral on Saturday and to participate in the conclave.

“There are no candidates in a conclave,” David, the bishop of Kalookan, told reporters on Tuesday after a Mass for the soul of Francis at the Kalookan Cathedral.

David dispelled the notion that the conclave is like a political election — a relevant metaphor because the Philippines is holding its midterm elections on May 12. “No one will give dole-outs. No one will put up tarpaulins. No one will mount a campaign,” the cardinal said.

“A conclave is a retreat. The cardinals will pray, and it is in the spirit of prayer that we will ask not whom we want to elect, but whom the Lord wants to succeed Pope Francis. That’s why we have a big moral and spiritual obligation to enter into the conclave, not in the spirit of politics but in the spirit of prayer for the continuity of the mission of the Church,” David said.

David, 66, is the 10th cardinal from the Philippines, and is participating in a conclave for the first time. He was part of the last batch of cardinals created by Pope Francis on December 7, 2024.

David, known for his opposition to former president Rodrigo Duterte’s war on drugs, is also the president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines.

He has been cheered by supporters as a possible replacement for Francis. His college schoolmate at a Jesuit university here — Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle — is also a popular papabile in the Philippines.

The Philippines, composed of 86 million Catholics, is the biggest Catholic-majority country in Asia and the third biggest in the world. This makes the papal election a highly charged topic in the country both online and offline, prompting clergymen such as David to educate their flock about the nature of a conclave.

In his interview with journalists on Tuesday, David said that since the conclave is a “retreat,” part of the cardinals’ duty is to discern by getting to know their fellow cardinals better.

One way by which they get acquainted with each other, according to David, is by writing each other personal letters.

He said another way is by doing research, noting that there is a website compiling the biographical data and other basic information about the different cardinals. “I am there. I was surprised, I didn’t even know who did my write-up,” he said.

When asked about the qualities of the next pope, David said he should be “somebody who will sustain the vision of Pope Francis of synodality.”

Referring to Francis’s synodal vision, David said, “That’s his biggest contribution: To propel the Church in mission. That the Church should not be too ‘churchy’ and inward-looking. That it should open its doors and look outside, at society. Because we have a mission: We are the salt of the earth, we are the light of the world.”

“What is our impact on society? So what if we are building big parishes, but we don’t make a difference in society?” the cardinal said.

When asked about the possibility that the Catholic Church will have an Asian pope, David said, “Well, in our time, anything can be made possible by the Holy Spirit.”

“It’s true: Before, the Global North was the center. Now, the majority of the Catholics are in the Global South,” the cardinal said.

He noted that the bishops of the Global South have even banded together to form the Conferences of the Global South, composed of the Federation of Asian Bishops’ Conferences and their Latin American and African counterparts.

They often hold Zoom meetings, according to him, as “a way to strengthen the bonding of the Global South.”

Even as clergymen such as David describe the global landscape in this way, however, they have continued urging Filipino Catholics not to treat the conclave like a horse race.

A spokesperson for the bishops’ conference appealed to Filipinos not to campaign online for one of its own: Tagle, pro-prefect of the Vatican’s Dicastery for Evangelization and former archbishop of Manila.

“We leave it to the cardinal electors to decide who will succeed Pope Francis. It’s not prudent for the public to promote Cardinal Tagle as the next pope, as this could create the impression that the conclave might be swayed by external influences if Cardinal Tagle is elected as the next pontiff,” said Father Jerome Secillano, executive secretary of the CBCP Episcopal Commission on Public Affairs, said on church-run Radio Veritas.

Secillano, who is also the spokesperson of the Archdiocese of Manila, added, “The independence of the electors must be respected, and the least we can do is pray for Cardinal Tagle and the other cardinal electors.”