MANILA (LiCAS News): Pablo Virgilio Cardinal David of Kalookan, the Philippines, warned that political dynasties corrode both family life and national well-being, and urged Filipinos to follow the gospel model of the Holy Family rather than fear-driven pursuits of power.
Cardinal David made the call in his homily on the feast of the Holy Family on 28 December 2025, as the Church formally closed the Jubilee of Hope within the Octave of Christmas.
The cardinal framed the gospel reading as “a tale of two families,” drawing a sharp moral contrast between the household of King Herod and the family of Joseph, Mary, and Jesus.
“Political dynasties, too, are families,” he observed, describing them as clans that “protect their turf,” “keep power within the clan,” and turn public office into “private property.”
Reflecting on the account of the flight into Egypt, Cardinal David described Herod’s household as “a powerful dynasty, obsessed with control, fearful of losing power, violent toward anyone perceived as a threat.”
A family that clings to power eventually turns against itself often collapse from within—siblings against siblings, parents against children, spouses against spouses—once fear and insecurity take over.
Cardinal David
He contrasted this with Joseph’s family, which he said was “fragile, displaced, homeless, forced to migrate to survive.”
The cardinal noted that families shaped by fear and control eventually implode, and warned that power-centred households turn inward over time.
“A family that clings to power eventually turns against itself,” he said, adding that political dynasties “often collapse from within—siblings against siblings, parents against children, spouses against spouses—once fear and insecurity take over.”
He said, “That kind of family is not life-giving. It is self-destructive. And when it dominates a nation, it slowly destroys the nation as well.”
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Cardinal David said the gospel underscores Joseph’s rejection of power, even though he was a descendant of King David, choosing instead to protect life.
Hope grows when families choose the way of Joseph rather than the way of Herod
Cardinal David
“Joseph had no interest in rebuilding David’s throne,” the cardinal said. “He had embraced a different vocation: to help God build a family, not an empire.”
God’s saving work, Cardinal David said, unfolds far from political centres and structures of dominance.
“God’s plan was not unfolding in palaces, but in kitchens; not in royal courts, but in ordinary homes; not in imperial Jerusalem, but in quiet Nazareth,” he said.
Applying the homily to the Philippine context, the cardinal said Filipinos are rightly known for being family-oriented, while warning that family life can be lived in “two very different ways.”
He contrasted dynastic families that pass power as inheritance with “quiet families” who endure “calamities, floods, fires, and earthquakes,” as well as “economic hardship, migration, separation, war, and political uncertainty.”
The cardinal stressed, “These are the families of Bethlehem that become families in Egypt. These are the families of Egypt that grow roots again in Nazareth. They do not make headlines. But they carry the future.”
As the Jubilee of Hope ended, he said that the Church does not respond to social and political crises by offering “grand strategies or political blueprints,” but by calling people back to their homes.
“Hope begins there,” he said. “Hope grows when families choose the way of Joseph rather than the way of Herod.”
Cardinal David said, “God did not save the world through an empire. He saved it through a family.”
