On Saturday, Peter Turkson, Ghanian cardinal of the Catholic church and the only African to lead a Vatican department, suddenly submitted his letter of resignation to the Vatican.
Turkson, 73, from Ghana, served as one of the key advisors to Pope Francis on issues surrounding climate change and social justice. Reuters reported that some experts said the cardinal would be a top candidate to become the next Pope, crowning him the first Black Pope in 1,500 years.
According to Vatican sources, the Pope has yet to announce his acceptance of resignation. Turkson, who is two years shy of the mandatory age for bishops to retire at 75, is reportedly “fed up” with the internal disputes in the Catholic Church.
The Ghanian native heads the Dicastery for Integral Human Development department– formed in 2016 and tackled issues regarding peace, justice, migration, and charities.
Earlier this year, the Pope requested that Turkson’s department undergo an external review headed by the Cardinal Blase Cupich of Chicago.
Another source said Turkson told the staff he would explain in greater detail after the Pope made his decision.
His departure would leave the Vatican with no African heading a major department. However, the other African department head, Cardinal Robert Sarah of Guinea, retired in February after being appointed by Pope John Paul II in 1979.
While the clergy has faced a series of child sexual abuse scandals, a new 2021 report claimed that the Catholic Church in France abused more than 200,000 minors over the past seven decades. As a result, several church members faced abuse charges and were forced to vacate their positions, The Grio reported.
In June 2021, German Cardinal Reinhard Marx sent a letter of resignation to symbolize the church’s “systemic failure” on child abuse and said he wanted to “share the responsibility” for the mishandling of cases.
The Pope denied Marx’s request, and he continued to rule in his position as archbishop.
“It is urgent to air out this reality of the abuses and how the Church acted, and let the Spirit lead us to the desert of desolation, to the cross and to the resurrection,” said the Pope in a statement responding to the heightened calls for the church to address the longstanding issues of sexual assault.
“Silences, omissions, and giving too much weight to the prestige of the institution only leads to personal and historical failure and makes us live with the weight of having skeletons in the closet,” he added.
According to Church rules, Turkson would still be eligible to be a part of the group of cardinals that gets to elect the next Pope after Francis dies or retires.
