Catholic Leader Cardinal Peter Turkson to Discuss Plight of Today’s Refugees

The Catholic Church’s foremost expert on human rights and a figure whom many consider a future favorite for the papacy, Cardinal Peter Turkson of Ghana, will explore the current migration crisis and its ramifications for people across the world as the guest of Rockhurst University’s Visiting Scholar Lecture Series at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, Jan. 17, 2019, in Arrupe Hall Auditorium.

In “The Plight of Refugees in Today’s World,” Cardinal Turkson will address the role of the Roman Catholic Church in helping ease the current refugee crisis, which has caused political turmoil and suffering for countless people throughout the world.

Two years ago, Turkson was personally named by Pope Francis as prefect to the Vatican’s Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, responsible for leading the office comprised of a number of different commissions dedicated to human rights. Pope Francis placed Cardinal Turkson at the helm because he had previously served as the president of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace.

Cardinal Peter Kodwo Appiah Turkson was born Oct. 11, 1948, in Nsuta Wassaw in Western Ghana, Africa. Ordained to the priesthood in 1975, Turkson was ordained and installed as the archbishop of Cape Coast in Ghana in 1993. In September 2003, Pope John Paul II named him to the Sacred College of Cardinals.

Cardinal Turkson studied at St. Teresa’s Seminary in Amisano, Ghana, and at the regional Seminary of St. Peter in Pedu. Later he traveled to the United States for further theology studies at St. Anthony’s on Hudson in Rensselaer, New York. Five years later, he was assigned to study at Rome’s Pontifical Biblical Institute, first for a Licentiate in Sacred Scripture and again to complete a doctorate in Sacred Scripture.

Fluent in Fanti, English, French, Italian, German and Hebrew, Cardinal Turkson has served on the faculty of St. Teresa’s Seminary of Amisano and St. Peter’s Regional Seminary in Pedu, in addition to a number of part-time and visiting lectureships. He has received numerous honors and awards, including honorary degrees from the University of Ghana in Legon, the University of Education in Winneba, and Holy Cross College at Notre Dame, Indiana, the Order of the Star, a national honor of the Republic of Ghana, the Order of the Rock from the Anomabo Traditional Area in Central Ghana. In 2013, Cardinal Turkson was widely considered one of the primary candidates for the papacy following the resignation of Pope Benedict XVI.

Register your attendance to this free lecture online or by contacting 816-501-4828 or cynthia.cartwright@rockhurst.edu. Free parking is available in the garage at 52nd and Troost Ave. and in lots accessed by the campus entrance at 54th and Troost. See No. 19 at rockhurst.edu/map.