| His Eminence Peter Turkson |
|
|---|---|
| President of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace | |
Peter Turkson |
|
| See | Cape Coast (emeritus) |
| Enthroned | 24 October 2009 (2 years, 121 days) |
| Predecessor | Renato Martino |
| Orders | |
| Ordination | 20 July 1975 (Priest) by John Kodwo Amissah |
| Consecration | 27 March 1993 (Archbishop) by Dominic Kodwo Andoh assisted by Peter Poreku Dery and Peter Kwasi Sarpong |
| Created Cardinal | 21 October 2003 by Pope John Paul II |
| Rank | Cardinal-Priest of San Liborio |
| Personal details | |
| Birth name | Peter Kodwo Appiah Turkson |
| Born | 11 October 1948 Wassaw Nsuta, Ghana |
| Nationality | Ghanaian |
| Denomination | Catholic Church |
| Styles of Peter Kodwo Appiah Turkson |
|
|---|---|
| Reference style | His Eminence |
| Spoken style | Your Eminence |
| Informal style | Cardinal |
| See | Cape Coast |
Peter Kodwo Appiah Turkson (born 11 October 1948) is a Ghanaian Cardinal of the Catholic Church. He is the current president of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace since his appointment by Pope Benedict XVI on 24 October 2009. He had previously served as Archbishop of Cape Coast. He was elevated to the cardinalate by Pope John Paul II in 2003.[1] He is considered papabile.[2]
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Turkson was born in Wassaw Nsuta in Western Ghana to a Methodist mother and a Catholic father.[3] He studied at St. Teresa's Seminary in the village of Amisano and Pedu before attending St. Anthony-on-Hudson Seminary in Rensselaer, New York, where he obtained a Bachelor's degree in theology. He was ordained to the priesthood by Archbishop John Amissah on 20 July 1975.
Turkson was a professor at St. Teresa's Minor Seminary from 1975 to 1976, whence he entered the Pontifical Biblical Institute in Rome, earning a licentiate in Sacred Scripture in 1980. He returned to St. Teresa's for a year,1980–81, and became vice-rector at St. Peter's Seminary in 1981. He also did pastoral work in a parish annexed to the seminary. In 1987, he returned to the Pontifical Biblical Institute to receive a doctorate in Sacred Scripture (1992).
On 6 October 1992, Turkson was appointed Archbishop of Cape Coast by Pope John Paul II. He received his episcopal consecration on 27 March 1993 from Archbishop Dominic Kodwo Andoh, with Archbishops Peter Poreku Dery and Peter Kwasi Sarpong serving as co-consecrators. He served as President of the Ghana Catholic Bishops' Conference from 1997 to 2005, and as Chancellor of the Catholic University College of Ghana since 2003.
John Paul II created him Cardinal-Priest of S. Liborio in his last consistory of 21 October 2003. Turkson is the first Ghanaian cardinal, and was one of the cardinal electors who participated in the 2005 papal conclave, which selected Pope Benedict XVI. He was described as "one of Africa's most energetic church leaders" by a UK Catholic magazine.[4]
On 24 October 2009, Pope Benedict XVI appointed Turkson President of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace.[5] Within the Roman Curia, Turkson is also a member of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, the Pontifical Commission for the Cultural Heritage of the Church and, since 4 March 2010, the Pontifical Committee for International Eucharistic Congresses.[6]
On 16 October 2010 Pope Benedict appointed him as a member of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith[7] These memberships are for five years and are renewable. Being resident in Rome, he is invited to attend not only the plenary meetings of those departments, which in principle are held every year, but also the ordinary meetings.
Cardinal Turkson will be in Washington D.C. to deliver the plenary address of the 2011 Catholic Social Ministry Gathering. The gathering, on the theme of “Protecting Human Life and Dignity: Promoting a Just Economy,” is sponsored by 19 Catholic organizations, including the U.S. Catholic bishops. In a recent interview with CNA, Cardinal Turkson said he has learned from past experience that the Church’s justice and peace terminology often needs clarification for an American Catholic audience. Key terms used by the Vatican — such as “social justice” and “gift” — are not always understood the way the Vatican intends, he said. "We found out that some of the vocabulary which is just taken for granted and used freely may not always have the same sense or may have had some nuances which sometimes are missed because of the way the terms are used in the American political context,” Cardinal Turkson said in a 12 Jan interview at the council’s offices in Rome. Pope Benedict XVI appointed Cardinal Turkson to his post in Oct. 2009, just months after the Pope released his blueprint for the Church’s social teaching, Caritas in Veritate.[8]
On 10 March 2011, Cardinal Turkson gave a lecture in Durham, England organised by Durham University Centre for Catholic Studies (CCS) and the Catholic Diocese of Hexham and Newcastle in honor of the late Bishop Kevin Dunn who was instrumental in the creation of the Centre. He will deliver his lecture "The Gospel and Social Teaching: On the Economic Crisis, Human Flourishing, and Church Ministry" on Thursday 10 March at 7:30pm at St Cuthbert's Church, Old Elvet, Durham.
On 30 March 2011, Pope Benedict XVI announced at his weekly general audience that he was sending Cardinal Turkson as a Vatican mediator to contribute to a possible diplomatic, non-military solution to the potentially explosive civil conflict in Ivory Coast, which could turn into an even bloodier civil war if not contained. There Laurent Gbagbo had refused, in spite of international condemnation and local protests and resistance, to step aside and hand over power to Alassane Ouattara, the certified winner of the presidential election. Atrocities have been committed by both sides.[9]
In October 2011 Cardinal Turkson called for the establishment of a “global public authority” and a “central world bank” to rule over financial institutions that have become outdated and often ineffective in dealing fairly with crises. The document, Towards Reforming the International Financial and Monetary Systems in the Context of a Global Public Authority was very specific, calling for taxation measures on financial transactions. It notes that “The economic and financial crisis which the world is going through calls everyone, individuals and peoples, to examine in depth the principles and the cultural and moral values at the basis of social coexistence,” it said. The document condemned what it called “the idolatry of the market” as well as a “neo-liberal thinking” that it said looked exclusively at technical solutions to economic problems. “In fact, the crisis has revealed behaviours like selfishness, collective greed and hoarding of goods on a great scale,” it said, adding that world economics needed an “ethic of solidarity” among rich and poor nations.[10] [11]
An accomplished polyglot, Turkson is able to speak English, Fante, French, Italian, German, and Hebrew, in addition to understanding Latin and Greek.
Cardinal Turkson has said that "if God would wish to see a black man also as pope, thanks be to God".[12] The Catholic Church chronicler Rocco Palmo called Turkson the lone Scripture scholar in the Pope's "Senate" and believes that his status as a potential "papabile" has been elevated due to his appointment as spokesman for Second Synod for Africa in 2009.[13]
In 2009, he reaffirmed the Catholic social teaching on contraception, in regards to statements made by Pope Benedict XVI that condoms were not a solution to Africa’s AIDS crisis and were taken out of context by the media.[14] Turkson didn't rule out condoms outright, suggesting they could be useful in a situation of a married, faithful couple where one partner is infected; however, as the quality of condoms in Africa is poor, their use can engender false confidence. He said abstinence and fidelity were the key to fighting the epidemic, along with refraining from sex if infected and that the money being spent on condoms would be better spent providing anti-retroviral drugs to those already infected.[15][16][17]
In response to the global economic crisis started in 2008, Cardinal Turkson together with bishop Mario Toso elaborated a proposal to reform the International Financial System by creating a Global Public Authority and a Global Bank that consider the interest of all developing countries. The document of 40 pages was officially presented in October 2011 and criticizes the actual structure of International Monetary Fund and other institutions. [18]
| Catholic Church titles | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by John Kodwo Amissah |
Archbishop of Cape Coast 1992 – 2009 |
Succeeded by Matthias Kobena Nketsiah |
| Preceded by Renato Raffaele Martino |
President of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace 24 October 2009– present |
Incumbent |