Cardinal Peter TURKSON

First Prefect - Dicastery for promoting Integral Human Development, Vatican

Born in 1948 in Ghana, Cardinal Peter K.A. Turkson studied theology at St Anthony-on-Hudson Seminary in New York and was ordained a priest in 1975. He did graduate studies at the Pontifical Biblical Institute in Rome, 1976-80 and 1987-92. In 1992 he was appointed

Archbishop of Cape Coast by St John Paul II and made Cardinal in 2003. He was President of the Ghana Catholic Bishops' Conference 1997-2005, and since 2003 has been Chancellor of the Catholic University College of Ghana. He served as Relator during the II Synod of Bishops for Africa in October 2009. At the end of the Synod, Pope Benedict XVI named Cardinal Turkson as President of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, reconfirmed by Pope Francis in 2013. Cardinal Turkson has been appointed by Pope Francis as first Prefect of the new Dicastery for promoting Integral Human Development on 31st August 2016.