• Skip to main content
  • Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
Catholic Review

Catholic Review

Inspiring the Archdiocese of Baltimore

Menu
  • Home
  • News
        • Local News
        • World News
        • Vatican News
        • Obituaries
        • Featured Video
        • En Español
        • Sports News
        • Official Clergy Assignments
        • Schools News
  • Commentary
        • Contributors
          • Question Corner
          • George Weigel
          • Effie Caldarola
          • John Garvey
          • Father Ed Dougherty, M.M.
          • Guest Commentary
        • CR Columnists
          • Archbishop William E. Lori
          • Rita Buettner
          • Christopher Gunty
          • George Matysek Jr.
          • Father Joseph Breighner
          • Father Collin Poston
          • Robyn Barberry
          • Hanael Bianchi
          • Amen Columns
  • Entertainment
        • Events
        • Movie & Television Reviews
        • Arts & Culture
        • Books
        • Recipes
  • About Us
        • Contact Us
        • Our History
        • Meet Our Staff
        • Photos to own
        • Books/CDs/Prayer Cards
  • Advertising
  • Shop
        • Purchase Photos
        • Books/CDs/Prayer Cards
  • CR Radio
  • News Tips
  • Subscribe
Cardinal Peter Turkson, prefect of the Vatican's Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, speaks to journalists during a conference on building a world free of nuclear weapons, at the Vatican Nov. 10, 2017. (CNS photo/Paul Haring)

Cardinal Turkson to celebrate Mass at Baltimore Basilica

June 6, 2018
By George P. Matysek Jr.
Filed Under: Feature, Local News, News

Cardinal William H. Keeler meets with Cardinal Peter Turkson (right), archbishop of Cape Coast in Ghana, at Cardinal Keeler’s residence May 20, 2005 . (CR file)

Cardinal Peter Turkson, prefect of the Vatican’s Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, will celebrate the 5:30 p.m. Mass at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Baltimore June 16.

Cardinal Turkson, 69, is a former archbishop of Cape Coast, Ghana, and a former president of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace. In May, he co-released a new Vatican document approved by Pope Francis asserting that every economic activity has a moral and ethical dimension.

Father James Boric, rector of the Baltimore Basilica, said he welcomes Cardinal Turkson “with great joy.”

“To have Cardinal Turkson come to the basilica is an honor and a privilege,” Father Boric said. “His love for all life, especially the poor and forgotten, is inspirational.”

A biblical scholar who has been active in ecumenical and interreligious dialogue, Cardinal Turkson speaks fluent English, Fante, French, Italian, German and Hebrew. He has written knowledge of Latin and Greek.

In a 2005 interview with the Catholic Review, Cardinal Turkson discussed Catholicism in Africa, acknowledging that the Catholic Church is experiencing rapid growth and large numbers of religious vocations on the continent. He expressed concerns, however, about the nature of the growth.

“It is true that the church in Africa is thriving,” said Cardinal Turkson, who led the effort to establish Ghana’s first Catholic university. “But we also have had a certain type of catechesis that is not too deep. Traditional cultures and values are not too radically transformed by the values of the Gospel. We need a more deeply rooted experience of conversion.”

Cardinal Turkson pointed to the genocide and war that plagued Rwanda as an example of how some Catholics in Africa have not fully embraced the Gospel message.

Rwanda “was supposed to be 80 percent Catholic, but they forgot they were Catholic, and they forgot they were Christian,” Cardinal Turkson told the Catholic Review. “There was terrible loss of life. Evangelization needs to be radical so that traditional values are challenged and transformed.”

In the 2005 interview, the cardinal said he was saddened to see the church struggling in Europe. European missionaries took the Catholic faith to Africa, and Catholics there look to Europeans as their spiritual parents, he said.

“It’s indispensable that we see Christianity come back to Europe,” Cardinal Turkson said. “If Europe should become less Christian, it gives us a sense of being orphans, of having an experience of faith without parents.”

He said it hurts evangelization efforts in Africa when people look at Europe and see that those who encouraged Africans to embrace the faith are now abandoning it.

In recent years, Cardinal Turkson has been outspoken on the need to protect the environment, connecting environmentalism to the pro-life movement.

In 2015, he told a U.N. gathering on climate change that Pope Francis’ encyclical on the care of creation called on all societies to examine how they produce and consume goods and on all the world’s people to realize the role they, too, have in addressing global warming.

The cardinal, sometimes mentioned as a possible successor to Pope Francis, aroused some controversy in 2011 when he called for a “world central bank” to regulate the global financial industry.

The same day his celebrates Mass in Baltimore, Cardinal Turkson will participate in a round-table discussion at Loyola University Maryland in Baltimore, touching on issues of economic justice. The event is sponsored by Conscious Venture Lab, the Archdiocese of Baltimore and the Sellinger School of Business.

Catholic News Service contributed to this story.

Email George Matysek at gmatysek@CatholicReview.org

 

 

Print Print

Primary Sidebar

George P. Matysek Jr.

George Matysek, a member of the Catholic Review staff since 1997, has served as managing editor since September 2021. He previously served as a writer, senior correspondent, assistant managing editor and digital editor of the Catholic Review and the Archdiocese of Baltimore.

In his current role, he oversees news coverage of the Archdiocese of Baltimore and is a host of Catholic Review Radio.

George has won more than 100 national and regional journalism and broadcasting awards from the Maryland-Delaware-DC Press Association, the Catholic Press Association, the Associated Church Press and National Right to Life. He has reported from Guyana, Guatemala, Italy, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland.

A native Baltimorean, George is a proud graduate of Our Lady of Mount Carmel High School in Essex. He holds a bachelor's degree from Loyola University Maryland in Baltimore and a master's degree from UMBC.

George, his wife and five children live in Rodgers Forge. He is a parishioner of the Cathedral of Mary Our Queen in Homeland.

View all posts from this author

For the latest news delivered twice a week via email or text message, sign up to receive our free enewsletter.

Latest Local News

Young adults from Archdiocese of Baltimore invited to experience local and international World Youth Day events

Archdiocese of Baltimore welcomes new school leaders

RADIO INTERVIEW: Camp St. Vincent

Archbishop Lori decries Biden executive order, ‘continued promotion of abortion’

Archbishop Lori urges Congress to ‘seize hopeful moment,’ vote to protect life, common good

Latest World News

Overturning of Roe provides ‘chance to win fight for life,’ says top Knight

Desire for eternal youth is ‘delusional,’ pope says

Father Carl Kabat, a former Baltimore resident, spent 17 years in prison for anti-nuclear protests

Don’t be afraid to make mistakes, pope tells young people

5th Circuit urged to keep injunction in place on HHS transgender mandate

Catholic Review Radio

CatholicReview · Catholic Review Radio

Footer

Our Vision

Catholic Review Media communicates the Gospel and its impact on people’s lives in the Archdiocese of Baltimore and beyond.

Our Mission

Catholic Review Media provides intergenerational communications that inform, teach, inspire and engage Catholics and all of good will in the mission of Christ through diverse forms of media.

Contact

Catholic Review
320 Cathedral Street
Baltimore, MD 21201
443-524-3150
mail@CatholicReview.org

 

Social Media

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Recent

  • Young adults from Archdiocese of Baltimore invited to experience local and international World Youth Day events
  • Overturning of Roe provides ‘chance to win fight for life,’ says top Knight
  • Desire for eternal youth is ‘delusional,’ pope says
  • Archdiocese of Baltimore welcomes new school leaders
  • Father Carl Kabat, a former Baltimore resident, spent 17 years in prison for anti-nuclear protests
  • Don’t be afraid to make mistakes, pope tells young people
  • 5th Circuit urged to keep injunction in place on HHS transgender mandate
  • MOVIE REVIEW: ‘Predator’ prequel hunts for ‘Prey’
  • Cardinal Tomko, oldest member of College of Cardinals, dies at 98

Search

Membership

Catholic Press Association of the United States and Canada

Maryland-Delaware-DC Press Association

The Associated Church Press

© 2022 CATHOLIC REVIEW MEDIA, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED