Search for a new Pope: President Mahama ‘campaigns’ for Cardinal Turkson
President John Dramani Mahama has made a case for Ghana’s Cardinal Peter Appiah Turkson as the next Pope of the Roman Catholic Church.
According to President Mahama, the 76-year old Cardinal Turkson will make “a good Pope” to lead the Church following the demise of Pope Francis.
Francis was interred on Saturday after leading the Catholic Church for 12 years, having replaced Pope Benedict XVI who stepped down in 2013.
He died on Monday April 21, 2025 after suffering “a stroke, followed by a coma and irreversible cardio circulatory collapse,” the Vatican said.
In a message in the book of condolence opened in the memory of the late Pope Francis in Accra on Friday, President Mahama prayed that the papal conclave, the College of Cardinals who elect the pope, would be guided by the spirit of God to choose a worthy successor to the late pontiff.
“I pray that the Conclave be guided by God to choose a worthy successor and I know one who will make a good pope – our own ‘AT’” President Mahama wrote.
He described the late Pope Francis as “a good man! Personable and humane, with a good soul”.
Cardinal Turkson is in the running to succeed the late Pope to lead the church which has over 1.4 billion members.
The Ghanaian prelate will be the first African to ascend to the seat of the pope if he gets the nod when the 135 cardinal electors converge between 15 to 20 days of the pope’s passing, per church rules.
Ordained in 1975, Cardinal Turkson has held high offices at the Vatican including the Chancellor of the Pontifical Academies of Sciences (2021-2022), Prefect of the Dicastery of the Promotion of Integral Human Development (2017-2021) and President of the Pontifical Council of Justice and Peace (2009-2017).
Cardinal Turkson was also the Vice Rector of the St Peter’s Seminary in 1981, Archbishop of Cape Coast between 1992-2009, and president of the Ghana Catholic Bishops Conference between 1997 and 2005.
Appiah Turkson was created a Cardinal by late Pope John Paul II in 2003 to become Ghana’s first Cardinal.
He is a graduate of St Teresa’s Minor Seminary, Amisano and St Peter’s Regional Seminary, Pedu.
He holds a Master of Arts in Theology and a Master of Arts in Divinity from the St Anthony-on-Hudson Seminary, Rensselaer, New York.
BY JULIUS YAO PETETSI