Filipino Cardinal Pablo Virgilio David has downplayed talk about “popular candidates” in the upcoming conclave that will occur following the death of Pope Francis on Easter Monday.
David, who left Manila for Rome on the morning of 24 April to attend Pope Francis’s funeral on Saturday and then to participate in the subsequent conclave, said a papal election is unlike the political processes seen in different parts of the globe.
“There are no candidates in a conclave,” David, the bishop of Kalookan, told reporters on Tuesday after a Mass celebrated for the repose of Pope Francis's soul at Kalookan Cathedral.
