Cardinal Peter Turkson of Cape Coast, Ghana, blesses jugs of water
to be used as holy water during a two-day pastoral visit this summer
to the small village of Ekumfi Nanaben. Each month, he visits one
of the 28 parishes in his archdiocese.
CNS PHOTO/JOSHUA ROBERTS |
By Simon Caldwell
Catholic News Service
LONDON (CNS) — Catholics in Ghana are being taught
the Quran and Islamic scriptures to further interreligious dialogue and
community cohesion, said the country’s first cardinal.
Cardinal Peter Turkson of Cape Coast, Ghana, said in an Oct. 15 interview
with Catholic News Service that relations between Catholics and Muslims
in Ghana were “pretty cordial,” but he acknowledged that rising
Islamic militancy around the world presented new challenges to relations
between Christians and Muslims in his country.
Cardinal Turkson said that any rising tensions were being countered by
a “dynamic program of action.”
“We are promoting the study of the Quran among Catholics so there
is no ignorance about or intolerance of what it stands for,” the
cardinal said.
“We have what we call a dialogue of action,” he said. “We
come together to undertake common projects.
“If a well needs digging for water, we will drill the borehole together,
for example, and we build schools together,” he said.
Catholics account for 15 percent of the predominantly Christian West African
nation’s nearly 23 million people. Muslims make up about 16 percent
of the population.
“But all over the world there is the changing face of Islam,”
the cardinal added. “With the collapse of communism there is an
ideological vacuum to be filled, and some people are pushing Islam to
fill that.
“There are quite a few tensions over what others conceive Islam
should be,” he added. “We are challenged to deal with such
situations of tension that every now and then arise.”
Cardinal Turkson, 59, spoke during an Oct. 15-21 visit to England to strengthen
existing links between England and Ghana and to highlight the importance
of World Mission Sunday Oct. 21.
He also spoke of his gratitude to England for sending Catholic missionaries
to Ghana in the 19th century, when Ghana was part of the British colonial
territories.
He said he believes that Africa now has a duty to support the Catholic
Church in Europe — if needed with priests and religious men and
women.
Cardinal Turkson was ordained a priest in 1975 in Cape Coast. He later
received a doctorate in Scripture from the Pontifical Biblical Institute
in Rome.
His early years as a priest were spent teaching in the seminary and at
the University of Cape Coast, where he also served as chaplain for two
years.
In 1993 he was ordained archbishop of Cape Coast, and 10 years later,
Pope John Paul II made him Ghana’s first cardinal.
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