Pope Francis accepts Cardinal Turkson’s resignation as head of Vatican’s social development office

Cardinal Peter Turkson, prefect of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, in London, England, on March 14, 2011. Credit: Mazur/catholicchurch.org.uk. / null

Vatican City, Dec 23, 2021 / 04:25 am (CNA).

Pope Francis on Thursday accepted the resignation of Cardinal Peter Turkson as prefect of the Vatican Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development.

He named the Canadian Jesuit Cardinal Michael Czerny as the interim head of the dicastery pending the appointment of “new leadership.”

The Holy See press office said on Dec. 23 that the dicastery’s leaders had left their mandates in the pope’s hands following the end of their five-year terms, which began when the dicastery was created in 2016.

“While sincerely thanking Card. Peter K. Appiah Turkson and his collaborators for their service and while awaiting the appointment of the new leadership, the Holy Father has entrusted ad interim the ordinary management of the same dicastery as of Jan. 1, 2022, to Card. Michael Czerny, S.J., as prefect and to Sister Alessandra Smerilli, F.M.A., as secretary,” it said.

Czerny, who was born in Brno, Czechoslovakia, in 1946, has served as Under-secretary of the Migrants and Refugees Section of the dicastery since 2017.

Following the resignation of Guinean Cardinal Robert Sarah as prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship in February, Turkson was the only African leading a Vatican department.

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