SOME African cardinals of the Roman Catholic Church are qualified to be pope after the death of the 88-year-old Supreme Pontiff on Easter Monday.
The late Pope Francis died after a string of health issues, spending 38 days in hospital in February and March this year. Pepe Francis will be buried on Saturday.
There are qualifications for being a pope of the Catholic Church. Apart from baptism, anybody contending for the position must be male Roman and, to a large extent, a cardinal. Though rules do not specify that a pope must come from the exclusive class of cardianals, previous Popes have been cardinals.
Currently, there are 138 individuals who are eligible to vote through the secret ballot system, which is supervised by nine randomly selected cardinals. A two-thirds majority is required to elect the new pope, and voting would often continue until the threshold is met.
Peter Kodwo Appiah Turkson
Three African cardinals are qualified to be pope. First is Peter Kodwo Appiah Turkson, who was born on October 11, 1948. He has served as chancellor of the Pontificial Academies of Sciences since 2022 and was Archbishop of Cape Coast between 1992 and 2009. He was made a cardinal by Pope John Paul II in 2003. He is Prefect Emeritus of the Dicastery for his role in advancing human development and is also archbishop emeritus of Cape Coast (Ghana).
The cardinal is seen as a popular candidate for papacy. The Tablet described him in 2013 as “one of Africa’s most energetic church leaders.” In 2016, Turkson was sent by Pope Francis to South Sudan as his special envoy with a view to ending violence in the country.
On October 24, 2009, Pope Benedict XVI had named him president of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace. Pope Francis reconfirmed him in this position in 2013.
“He served as president of the Ghana Catholic BishopsÂ’ Conference (1997-2004). He was a member of Governing Council of the University of Ghana, Legon (2001-2006) and of the Board of Directors of Central Region Development Commission (CEDECOM) (2002-2006). He served as treasurer of the Symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar (SECAM) (2007-2009) and presently serves as Vice President of the Association of Episcopal Conferences of Anglophone West Africa (AECAWA). He served as President of the Regional Episcopal Conference of West Africa (RECOWA) (2007-2010),” says the Holy See, a Vatican-based newspaper.
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Next is Cardinal Fridolin Ambongo Besungu, who is the Archbishop of Kinshasa. He was born on January 24, 1960, in Boto in the rural Province of Nord-Ubangi in the Democratic Republic of Congo, into the family of 11.
He studied philosophy at the seminary of Bwamanda. He also went to Institut Saint-Eugène-de-Mazenod in Congo to study theology and then attended the Capuchin Friars Minor in 1981.
Cardinal Fridolin Ambongo Besungu
The College of Cardinals Report describes him as “a passionate promoter of social justice who fearlessly engages in politics on behalf of the poor and the voiceless, but whose approach to mission and other crucial issues appears contradictory.”
The report notes that “he has voiced concerns about superficial evangelization but then chooses to focus primarily on human dignity, social issues and culture rather than the sacraments and the sacrifice of the Mass (our research also shows he has made no comments and reflections on the interior life).”
“Cardinal Ambongo has a firm and passionate belief in Africa and what the continent can offer the Church and the world. He is a strong proponent of inculturation and the Zairian rite, and sees evangelization just as necessary for his homeland as for the regressive new mission territories of the West. His own archdiocese, however, has a poor record in attracting vocations on a continent where they are reportedly growing fastest. Under Ambongo’s watch, numbers of priests and religious have plummeted,” the report further said.
Robert Sarah
Robert Sarah was born June 15, 1945). He is a Guinean Catholic prelate and was the Discipline of the Sacraments in 2021. He was the secretary of the Congregation for the Evengelization of Peoples as well as the head of the Pontificial Council Cor Unum.
The key question is, can an African emerge the pope of the Catholic Church? Time will tell.
