Cardinal Peter Appiah Turkson has reacted to the news of his purported resignation.
Cardinal Peter Turkson, who has been a key adviser to Pope Francis on issues such as climate change and social justice, was in the news recently for abruptly tendering his resignation from a key Vatican department, sources familiar with the matter said.
According to him, he did not tender in a resignation from the Vatican position as the news making rounds suggests.
He only sent a notification to the Pope to inform him about the expiration of his tenure of office which forms part of the bureaucratic process surrounding the Vatican.
“Here in the Vatican, every position is given for five years and at the end of the five years, either the term is extended, renewed or one is reassigned to some other position. I left Ghana in 2010, which means I have been here [for] eleven years, which means I’ve done two terms of five years.”
“At the end of the set of five years, my mandate was slightly modified and extended. When I came here, I was to take charge of an office called Justice and Peace, at the end of five years it had a merger. Three other offices were joined with our office and that became the second set of five years and this happened in August 2016.
"So 2021 is the end of the second set of five years. So at the end of all of these years, you notified the Pope that your five years are up, to enable him to take a decision,” he clarified.
The 73-year-old heads a large Vatican department known as the Dicastery for Integral Human Development. It was formed in 2016 to merge four offices that dealt with issues such as peace, justice, migration, and charities.
According to sources, Cardinal Turkson had become “fed up” with internal disputes. In the response, however, he refuted the claim.
“So this is what happened last year, the Pope decided to reassign and…have you move on and that’s just what happened; you have to notify the Pope that your five years are up and doing that it’s not resignation, it’s just a notification,” he said on Accra-based Asaase radio.
“Over here in the Italian language, we say that: you put your mandate back to his hands for him to reassign, extend, modify or do what he wants to do with it.
"So that’s just what happened. Why this was seen and interpreted as resignation beats my imagination and as a result of that, I tweeted to explain all of this but people took things the way they wanted to take it. There was nothing to get upset or get worried about,” he emphasised.
Latest Stories
-
Parliament hosts orientation workshop to promote transparency and accountability
3 seconds -
Ghana urgently needs a Pricing Regulatory Authority to stabilise the Economy
21 minutes -
Lamine Yamal to be investigated over dwarfism row
21 minutes -
Brentford sign Henderson on two-year deal
25 minutes -
Shamima Muslim applauds scrapping of fuel allowances for political appointees
28 minutes -
Ghana and Mexico strengthen sports ties with landmark collaboration
30 minutes -
Photos: NSA Director General welcomes Ambassador of Mexico to Ghana
43 minutes -
Ghana Party in the Park 2025 was a great success – Albert Nii Amartey Armah
45 minutes -
Blending culture with faith: Presbyterian Church of Ghana walks the path
47 minutes -
We will take drastic measures to halt dollarisation of economy – BoG Governor
56 minutes -
NSMQ 2025 Northern Qualifiers: Drama as two schools withdraw over bereavement and fear of Ghana SHS
1 hour -
Cedi must lead Ghana’s economy – BoG to clamp down on dollar transactions
1 hour -
Ghana Anti-Corruption Coalition urges youth to take lead in combating corruption
1 hour -
Village Savings and Loan Groups in Wassa Amenfi West receive financial literacy training
1 hour -
When the Elephant Lost its Trunk: A Post-Election Safari in the Republic of Uncommon Sense
2 hours