Peter Cardinal Turkson
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Peter Kodwo Appiah Cardinal Turkson (born October 11, 1948) is a Ghanaian prelate, the Archbishop of Cape Coast and Cardinal in the Roman Catholic Church.
[edit] Biography
Born in Wassaw Nsuta, in Ghana, Turkson studied in New York City and Rome as well as his native country, earning a doctorate in Sacred Scripture in 1982. A polyglot, Turkson is known to be able to speak at least six languages, including English, Fante, French, Italian, German, and Hebrew, in addition to understanding Latin and Greek.
Turkson was ordained as a priest on 20 July 1975, appointed Archbishop of Cape Coast on 6 October 1992, and elevated to the College of Cardinals by Pope John Paul II on 21 October 2003. He was one of the cardinal electors who participated in the 2005 papal conclave that selected Pope Benedict XVI. He was reputedly dubbed as "one of Africa's most energetic church leaders" by a UK newspaper.
According to the prophecy of the popes, the successor to Pope Benedict XVI is named as "Petrus Romanus" (Pope Peter II). There could be a possible chance that Cardinal Turkson is the "Petrus Romanus" foretold by St Malachy given the similarity of the names. If so, he would be the first black African pope in nearly 1500 years. He was not considered papabile during the 2005 papal conclave but given the fact that Pope John Paul II was also not papabile during his election in 1978, the election of Cardinal Turkson as the next pope might come as a surprise for the world.
