A Filipino cardinal has shared a personal reflection on the election of Pope Leo XIV, recalling a moment during the conclave that he described as a sign of divine counsel through the Blessed Virgin Mary.
Cardinal Pablo Virgilio David of Kalookan, who took part in the conclave that elected Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost as the new pontiff, recounted receiving an anonymous stampita of the Mother of Good Counsel during the gathering in Rome.
“There was one little gift that stood out for me,” David wrote. “The giver didn’t even bother to identify himself. It was a stampita of the icon of the Mother of Good Counsel.”
David, an alumnus of the Mother of Good Counsel Seminary in Pampanga, said he kept the devotional image in the pocket of the red cassock he wore inside the Sistine Chapel.
During the silent voting process, the cardinal said he unexpectedly reached for the stampita while looking for a handkerchief.
“I took it out of my pocket, and the urge to sneeze disappeared. I flipped the icon and found, written on its back, the prayer of St. John Paul II to the Mother of Good Counsel, and I prayed it in Italian.”
The cardinal later discovered that the newly elected pope’s first act was to visit the Sanctuary of the Mother of Good Counsel in Rome, where he was welcomed by a fellow Augustinian and former confrere.
“Who would meet him at the door—the rector of the shrine, his brother in the Augustinian Order, of which he had been superior general for two terms,” he said.
David also noted that Pope Leo XIV had previously served as provincial superior of an Augustinian province named “Mother of Good Counsel.”
“By then, it became clear to me who the anonymous giver of the stampitas was—the man whose name the Blessed Mother had counseled us to choose as the next Supreme Pontiff of the Catholic Church,” he wrote.
The Filipino prelate said he was among those who greeted the new pope immediately after the conclave.
“I said to him in English, ‘Holy Father, I hope and pray that you get to visit us in the Philippines. My home province in Pampanga was evangelized by Spanish Augustinian missionaries.’ He smiled and said, ‘Who knows? If God wills it, why not?’”
David concluded his reflection with a message of gratitude. “Thank you, Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost, for accepting the office of the papacy. Sorry, but we took the prayer on your stampita very seriously. And now, from Robert Francis Prevost, you have become Pope Leo XIV. Habemus Papam! Deo Gratias!”
