British bookmakers have named Ghanaian Cardinal Peter Turkson
as among the five favourites to take over from Pope Benedict XVI after he
resigns at the end of the month.
Cardinal Peter Turkson has been considered a possible future
candidate for the papacy since Benedict XVI appointed him as president of the
Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace in 2009 amid speculation that the next
Pope would be from Africa or Latin America as part of the Catholic Church's
efforts towards modernisation.
Turkson was appointed Archbishop of Cape Coast by Pope John
Paul II in 1992 and served as the president of the Ghana Catholic Bishops'
Conference from 1997 to 2005. In 2003 he became the first ever Ghanaian
cardinal.
This week Pope Benedict announced that he would resign on 28
February, which is two months before his 86 th birthday, after serving for
almost eight years. The abdication, which is said to be for health reasons, is
the first by a leader of the Roman Catholic Church in almost 600 years.
Also in the running to be the next Pope are Canada's Cardinal
Marc Ouellet (68), Nigeria's Cardinal Francis Arinze (80), Argentina's Cardinal
Leonardo Sandri (69), and Italy's Angelo Scola who is currently archbishop of
Milan.
A conclave of the church's cardinals will be called in Rome to
select a new Pope in March.
For more news and expert analysis about Ghana,
please see Ghana
Politics & Security.
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2013 Menas Associates
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