The three Filipino cardinals who will vote in the conclave that will elect the next pope concelebrated Mass for the Filipino community in Rome on Sunday, May 4.
The presence of Cardinals Luis Antonio Tagle, Jose Advincula, archbishop of Manila, and Pablo Virgilio David, bishop of Kalookan, drew an overflow crowd of Mass-goers at the chapel of the Pontificio Collegio Filippino, the residence of Filipino clerics studying in Rome’s pontifical universities.
The Mass, held to mark Collegio Day 2025, was in honor of Our Lady of Peace and Good Voyage, patroness of the college and of migrants, and was led by Bishop Ruperto Santos of Antipolo.
Santos, a former rector of the college, is the chairman of the Episcopal Commission on the Pontificio Collegio Filippino of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP).
The Mass was also concelebrated by Archbishop Victor Bendico, who succeeded Advincula in the Archdiocese of Capiz, and Fr. Gregory Gaston, rector of the Collegio.
Filipino clergy later led a procession of the image of Our Lady of Peace and Good Voyage, also the patron of the Antipolo diocese, and a “fiesta” at the college grounds.
Gaston said the presence of the three cardinals and the upcoming conclave also coincided with the “Jubilee Year of Hope” proclaimed by the late Pope Francis, and which has drawn many pilgrims to Rome.
Philippine Ambassador to the Holy See Myla Grace Macahilig said it was a “blessing” that there will be three Filipino electors in the conclave, which opens on May 7.
“We join the CBCP’s call for the people to be more prayerful so that there’s guidance for the cardinal electors from the Holy Spirit,” she said.
The three cardinals were also set to concelebrate the ninth and last of the “Novemdiales” Masses in suffrage for the late pontiff at St. Peter’s Basilica.
