"Why not?" Turkson said, arguing that when you agree to become a priest, you must be open to the idea of becoming a Pope. "All of that is part of the package."

Turkson added that the time was especially ripe given the election of President Barack Obama.

However his odds might have lengthened as the Mail reports that on 19 February Turkson faced a firestorm of criticism after he laid the blame for clerical sex abuse at the feet of gay priests.

Turkson told American journalist that similar sex scandals would never convulse churches in Africa because the culture was inimical to homosexuality.

'African traditional systems kind of protect or have protected its population against this tendency,' he told Christiane Amanpour of CCN.

'Because in several communities, in several cultures in Africa homosexuality or for that matter any affair between two sexes of the same kind, are not countenanced in our society,' he continued.

'So that cultural taboo, that tradition has been there,' said Cardinal Turkson, 64. 'It has served to keep it out.'

Turkson also made headlines in October 2012 for screening a YouTube video, called "Muslim Demographics in Europe, the invasion of faith snatchers," at the Synod of bishops meeting in Rome.

The seven-minute clip featured several alarmist claims, including: "In just 39 years France will be an Islamic republic."

In 2009, Turkson stood by Pope Benedict XVI's views that condoms were not a viable answer to Africa's AIDS crisis, highlighting their varying quality.

"We're talking about a product of a factory, and there are different qualities," he said at a press conference. "There are condoms that arrive in Ghana which in the heat will burst during sex. And when that is the case, then it gives a false sense of security which rather facilitates the spread of HIV/AIDS."

Turkson, however, did not rule out the use of condoms in all circumstances. He argued that they could be helpful in the case of a married couple in which one person is infected.

According to Michael Kelly, editor of the Irish Catholic newspaper, Turkson is considered an excellent communicator and someone who is comfortable in any circumstance.

Head of the Vatican's Department for Justice and Peace and to the fore of the Church's participation in global politics, he has been sharply critical of capitalism and has even called for a "world authority" to be established to regulate market capitalism.

At the same time, he is considered theologically conservative while remaining open to dialogue.

Turkson was a star turn at the International Eucharistic Congress in Dublin last year where he mingled easily with ordinary pilgrims and gave presentations lauded for their insight and teaching.

Sources

• Paddy Power
• Naija.com
• Daily Mail

The note, entitled "Towards reforming the international financial and monetary systems in the context of the global public authority", was presented to journalists at a press conference today presided over by the President of the Council, Cardinal Peter Turkson.

Cardinal Turkson told reporters that the document was also a way of giving a voice to the voiceless.

"Definitely, that's part of it and in fact in asking the G20 to pay attention to this or currently start doing a reflection in this direction, it is actually in view of those who suffer from this phenomenon, so giving a voice to the voiceless, that's what it is".

The proposal, which is not a papal document, suggests that the reform process might begin with the United Nations as a point of reference.

"On the way to building a more fraternal and just human family and, even prior to that, a new humanism open to transcendence, Blessed John XXIII's teaching seems especially timely. In the prophetic Encyclical Letter Pacem in Terris of 1963, he observed that the world was heading towards ever greater unification. He then acknowledged the lack of correspondence in the human community between political organization "on a world level and the objective needs of the universal common good". He also expressed the hope that one day "a true world political authority" would be created.

"Consistent with the spirit of Pacem in Terris, Benedict XVI himself expressed the need to create a world political authority. This seems obvious if we consider the fact that the agenda of questions to be dealt with globally is becoming ever longer. Think, for example, of peace and security; disarmament and arms control; promotion and protection of fundamental human rights; management of the economy and development policies; management of migratory flows and food security; and protection of the environment. In all these areas, the growing interdependence between States and regions of the world becomes more and more obvious as well as the need for answers that are not just sectorial and isolated, but systematic and integrated, rich in solidarity and subsidiarity and geared to the universal common good."

Source

• Vatican Radio
• The Deacon's Bench
• Image Catholic Free Press (CNS photo/Paul Haring)