Pope Francis has appointed Cardinal Peter Turkson to head the Vatican’s academies of sciences and social sciences.
He succeeds the Argentine Bishop Marcelo Sánchez Sorondo as Chancellor of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences and the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences, who held the positions since 1998.
Cardinal Turkson offered his resignation from the post of Prefect of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development in December last year, having headed it since its creation in 2016. He was replaced as prefect by the Canadian Cardinal Michael Czerny, and told reporters that he expected another appointment in Rome.
A former Metropolitan Archbishop of Cape Coast, Cardinal Turkson was the first Ghanaian to receive a red hat when he was inducted into the College of Cardinals by St John Paul II in 2003. He was, until his resignation from the dicastery, the only African heading a major department in the Curia.
The Holy See operates eleven pontifical academies, in fields including theology, Latin, and Thomist studies. The Pontifical Academy of Science dates its foundations to 1603, as the Accademia dei Lincei, which claimed Galileo Galilei as its president. It was established in its present form by Pius XI in 1936.
Its work covers fundamental science, scientific solutions to global problems and the problems of the developing world, scientific policy, bioethics, and epistemology. Its eighty members can be of any religion and are elected for the value of their scientific work and their high moral profile.
St John Paul II established the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences in 1994 to promote “the study and progress of the social sciences, primarily economics, sociology, law, and political science” and to provide “constructive evaluation of the Church’s social teachings in the light of the social sciences”.
Both academies are headquartered in the Casina Pio IV, the Vatican summer residence built by Pius IV in the sixteenth century. They hosted the “Dreaming of a Better Restart” meeting of global leaders in May last year, to develop strategies for post-pandemic society.
Cardinal Turkson is noted for his interest in economic and social issues, and directed extensive research into financial ethics during his tenure at the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development.
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