Tovic Salvador

Ghana's Cardinal Turkson is once again Africa's leading papal contender

Article (news)

Agence France-Presse

<p>VATICAN CITY, Holy See - Ghana&#x27;s Cardinal Peter Turkson is seen as one of the Church&#x27;s most influential men from Africa, where Christianity is quickly growing -- and which some believe could be the birthplace of the next pope.</p><div><a class="fr-green fr-strong" href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/world/2025/4/28/who-what-why-and-when-an-experts-view-on-the-conclave-2123">Who, what, why and when: An expert&#x27;s view on the conclave</a></div><p>The 76-year-old born into a humble family of 10 children is the first clergyman from the west African country to receive a red hat, having been made cardinal in 2003 by John Paul II.</p><p>Turkson currently serves as chancellor for two pontifical academies, that of sciences and social sciences.</p><p>Even before former pope Benedict XVI&#x27;s surprise resignation in 2013, the cardinal had been considered Africa&#x27;s frontrunner for papal contender -- generating countless speculative headlines about the first black pope.</p><p>But Turkson demurred in a 2010 interview: &quot;I wouldn&#x27;t want to be that first black pope.&quot;</p><p>&quot;I think he&#x27;ll have a rough time.&quot;</p><p>The possibility of Turkson as pope reflects shifting Church demographics -- from Europe, where membership is dwindling, to Africa, where Christianity is growing the fastest.</p><p>Born in the southern mining town of Nsuta-Wassa, Turkson was the fourth of 10 children to a Methodist mother who sold vegetables and a Catholic father, a carpenter.</p><p>He was ordained in 1975 before leaving Ghana to study in Rome and New York.</p><p>In 1992, then-pope John Paul II named Turkson the Archbishop of Cape Coast, a diocese of about 300,000 Catholics that grew under his watch.</p><p>In 2003, the pontiff promoted him to cardinal.</p><div><br/></div><div><strong>- Poverty, witchcraft -<br/></strong></div><p>In Ghana in 2008, Turkson acted as mediator on a peace council following close elections that threatened to erupt into violence.</p><p>A year later he was chosen by Benedict XVI for a key role within a special assembly for Africa by the Synod of Bishops, weighing in on such topics as reconciliation, poverty, AIDS, the brain drain and witchcraft.</p><p>Benedict again tapped Turkson in 2009 as president of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, charged with social justice and human rights.</p><div><a class="fr-green fr-strong" href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/world/2025/4/30/cardinals-lay-groundwork-for-conclave-hope-for-quick-vote-2052">Cardinals lay groundwork for conclave, hope for quick vote</a></div><p>As part of a reform of the Roman Curia -- the government of the Holy See -- Pope Francis in 2016 named Turkson head of a newly created department, the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, that merged the justice and peace council with three others.</p><p>Shepherding the economic and social issues deemed priorities to Francis, including the environment, Turkson -- who speaks six languages -- visited the World Economic Forum in Davos multiple times to convince business leaders of the perils of trickle-down economics.</p><p>In 2016, he was dispatched as papal special envoy to South Sudan to try to reconcile warring parties, and during the Covid-19 pandemic, he headed a task force to study the crisis&#x27; economic and social fallout.</p><p>But Turkson resigned as prefect of the dicastery in a 2021 shakeup following an external review and rumoured internal tensions within the division, leaving no Africans among the Vatican&#x27;s top posts.</p><div><br/></div><div><strong>- Lively prayer -</strong></div><p>Although Turkson has criticized anti-gay legislation in Uganda, he defends Catholic sexual morality and has denied that homosexuality is a human rights issue.</p><p>On the key issue in Africa of condoms, he has suggested they could be useful for monogamous couples in which one partner is HIV-positive, but also that money would be better spent on anti-retroviral drugs for those already infected.</p><p>Turkson had to apologise in 2012 after a high-profile blunder in which he showed a scare-mongering YouTube video about the rising rate of Muslims in the world during a synod of bishops.</p><p>Regarding Africans&#x27; view of Catholicism, Turkson has suggested that the Evangelical movement has done a better job at converting because the Church has become too cerebral, while Evangelism appeals &quot;to the heart, with lively music, lively prayer&quot;.</p><p>&quot;Sometimes we Africans make fun of how Europeans and Americans are such enthusiastic sports fans,&quot; Turkson said in 2012.</p><p>&quot;They can yell and shout and sing their hearts out at a soccer or football game, but in church even to sing a hymn seems to be such a penitential exercise.&quot;</p><div><strong>© Agence France-Presse</strong></div>

<p>Even before former pope Benedict XVI's surprise resignation in 2013, Cardinal Peter Turkson had been considered Africa's frontrunner for papal contender -- generating countless speculative headlines about the first black pope.</p>

Even before former pope Benedict XVI's surprise resignation in 2013, Cardinal Peter Turkson had been considered Africa's frontrunner for papal contender -- generating countless speculative headlines about the first black pope.