Cardinal Appiah Turkson speaks on resignation reports

Pope Francis yet to make decision on Cardinal Turkson’s resignation letter

Cardinal Turkson seen as candidate to become first African pope in about 1,500 years

Ghana’s Cardinal Peter Appiah Turkson has broken his silence a day after reports went rife that he has abruptly offered to resign from the church in Vatican.

International online news portal reuters.com on Saturday December 18, 2021 reported that Cardinal Peter Appiah Turkson offered an abrupt resignation following his displeasure with internal wrangling issues.

However, the portal’s sources indicated to it that a decision is yet to be made by Pope Francis on whether or not to accept the resignation.

Commenting on the issue in his first post since the reports, Cardinal Appiah Turkson said he awaits a new action from the Pope.

“In Vatican mandates of Office-Heads expire at death/resignation of Pope or expiry of 5yr term of office. One surrenders mandate for Pope/new Pope to renew/extend mandate or reassign. Turkson surrendered in 2013 Francis renewed 5yr mandate in 2016. Now must await new action of Pope!” he wrote on Twitter.

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.