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Cardinal Appiah Turkson reportedly unhappy with internal wrangling in the church
Cardinal Appiah Turkson seen as a candidate to become first African pope in about 1,500 years
International online news portal reuters.com has reported that Ghana’s Cardinal Peter Appiah Turkson has offered an abrupt resignation to the church in Vatican following his displeasure with internal wrangling issues.
According to the portal’s Vatican sources, a decision is yet to be made by Pope Francis on whether or not to accept the resignation.
Other sources intimated to the website that Cardinal Appiah Turkson has stated to staff that he will reveal more on the reasons for his resignation once it is accepted.
Cardinal Appiah Turkson heads a large Vatican department known as the Dicastery for Integral Human Development which was formed in 2016 to amalgamate four offices that dealt with issues such as peace, justice, migration, and charities.
His eventual departure will leave no African heading any large Vatican department as his fellow African, Cardinal Robert Sarah of Guinea who was the head of the Congregation for Worship at the Vatican, went into retirement earlier this year.
The department headed by Cardinal Appiah Turkson was in recent times subjected to an external review headed by Cardinal Blase Cupich of Chicago at the behest of Pope Francis.
Cardinal Appiah Turkson’s offer to resign follows two high-level departures from the department over the summer; one because of retirement and another sudden and unexplained, reuters report.
Even if he leaves his Vatican post, until he turns 80 Turkson would still be eligible to enter a conclave of cardinals to elect the next pope after Francis dies or retires, according to Church rules.
Turkson’s decision to offer his resignation was first reported by the conservative Italian blog messainlatino.it.
