The first Palestinian above all others is Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
Salam al Maseeh
The first Palestinian above all others is Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
Let be accursed any gospel other than that which was preached at the beginning, received not from man but from Christ Jesus, thou alone, in whom we have redemption through thy all holy infinitely pure and undefiled blood, the remission of our sins, who in the future shall recreate the heavens and the earth, called by thine special choice, who before hoped in Christ with all who heard the word of truth and believed, sealed with the Holy Spirit of the promise, who is the pledge of our inheritance, to the redemption of the possession, for the praise of his glory, in faith in the Lord Jesus, and of love for all the saints in unceasing intercession of all the elect angels and saints of God, virgins, with all thanksgiving, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may grant us the spirit of wisdom and revelation in deep knowledge of him; the eyes of our minds being enlightened, to know the hope of his calling, the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, and the exceeding greatness of his power towards us who believe, according to the working of his mighty power wrought in Christ the only first born from the dead in the flesh raised above all things he made subject under his feet, we who hold him the head directly and no other, Christ Jesus our only Lord and Saviour immortal son of the immortal Father in the unity and power and bond of love of the immortal Holy Spirit our Paraclete unto the ages of the ages. Amen.
O Lord our God, grant us peace. Out of the night my spirit waketh at dawn unto Thee, O God; for Thy commandments are a light upon the earth. Learn righteousness, all ye that dwell upon the earth. For the ungodly man hath come to an end; every one that learneth not righteousness upon the earth shall not be able to do truth; let the ungodly be taken away, that he may not see the glory of the Lord. O Lord, Thine arm is lifted up, and they knew it not; but when they know it, let them be put to shame. Zeal shall lay hold upon an untaught people, and now fire shall devour the adversaries. O Lord our God, bestow Thy peace upon us, for Thou hast given all things unto us. O Lord our God, take us for Thy possession. O Lord, we know no other beside Thee; we call upon Thy name. But the dead shall not see life, neither shall physicians raise them up; therefore hast Thou brought wrath upon them, and hast slain them, and hast taken every man of them away. Bring more evils upon them, Lord; bring more evils upon them that are glorious upon the earth. O Lord, in trouble we remembered Thee; with small affliction was Thy chastening with us. And as a woman in travail draweth nigh to be delivered, and crieth out in her travail, so have we become in the presence of Thy beloved. We have conceived, O Lord, because of Thy fear, and have suffered pangs, and have brought forth the spirit of Thy salvation, which we have wrought upon the earth. We shall not fail, but all those that dwell upon the earth shall fail. The dead shall arise, and they that are in the tomb shall awake, and they that are upon the earth shall rejoice. For the dew which Thou sendest is healing unto them; but the land of the ungodly shall perish. Go, my people, enter into thine inner chamber, shut thy door, hide thyself for a little season [during the Great Tribulation, hidden in mountains and dens and caves of the earth - there is NO secret rapture which is only an heretical apostate Lurianic Talmudic Judaic doctrine], until the anger of the Lord shall pass away.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.
Note in the below that this is a description of the evil that precedes the Antichrist who is the Abomination of Desolation. Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ then comes after the reign of Antichrist has proceeded for a while. Antichrist, his reign and the False Prophet and all their followers are then destroyed by the Second Coming of Our Lord Jesus Christ from heaven with all His elect Angels and sent to hell forever. The saints will then reign with Our Lord Jesus Christ at their head on earth forever.
Palestine, which is properly the Holy Land for in it walked God in the flesh, Jesus Christ, and there He allowed Himself to be sacrificed for the salvation of those who profess Him from the heart and with the mouth, is a miniature of all the evil that has come upon the earth and there will the final evil be concentrated in its fullness and rule from there for a short time.
Writing in the second century, St. Hippolytus wrote the following about the evil that will abound before the coming of Antichrist:
The temples of God will be like houses, and there will be overturnings of the churches everywhere. The Scriptures will be despised, and everywhere they will sing the songs of the adversary. Fornications, and adulteries, and perjuries will fill the land; sorceries, and incantations, and divinations will follow after these with all force and zeal. And, on the whole, from among those who profess to be Christians will rise up then false prophets, false apostles, impostors, mischief-makers, evil-doers, liars against each other, adulterers, fornicators, robbers, grasping, perjured, mendacious, hating each other. The shepherds will be like wolves; the priests will embrace falsehood; the monks will lust after the things of the world; the rich will assume hardness of heart; the rulers will not help the poor; the powerful will cast off all pity; the judges will remove justice from the just, and, blinded with bribes, they will call in unrighteousness.
St. Hippolytus of Rome, Treatise on the end of the world and on Antichrist
The resurrection of Christ. His commission to his disciples.
1 And *in the end of the sabbath, when it began to dawn towards the first day of the week,
18 And Jesus coming, spoke to them, saying: All power is given to me in heaven and in earth.
19 *Going, therefore, teach ye all nations: baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit;
20 Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and behold I am with you all days, even to the consummation of the world.
"Consummation of the world," - the end of this age of grace and the beginning of the eternal ages with Christ reigning visibly. This is the end of the eschaton and the beginning of the eternal recreated heavens and the earth and will begin when Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ returns from heaven in the same flesh He rose with and ascended into the third heaven with, seated at the right hand of the Father. His return will be with all of His elect angels. He will raise and judge all men in the flesh and then recreate the heavens and the earth, which in that state will last that way for eternity. There will NOT be any sin in the new heavens and earth, so prepare now by confessing the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit and be baptized as commanded above and shown how to baptize below and live Holy and Godly lives in sincerity and humility and meekness waiting for the Lord when He returns so that we are not like the five foolish virgins but are like the five wise virgins.
____________________
*
1: A.D. 30.; Mark xvi. 1.; John xx. 1.
19: Mark xvi. 15.
====================
Method of Baptism
From the Didache (49 A.D. Council of Jerusalem):
Chapter 7. Concerning Baptism.
And concerning baptism, baptize this way: Having first said all these things, baptize the one to be baptized into Jesus Christ in "the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit," in running water. But if you have no running water, baptize into other water [still water]; and if you cannot do so in cold water, do so in warm. But if you have neither, pour out water three times upon the head onto the one to be baptized saying at that time "in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit." But before the baptism, if possible, let the baptizer fast, and the baptized, and whoever else can; but you shall order the baptized [when there is time] to fast one or two days before.
Baptism can and should always be performed immediately when there is danger of death of the one to be baptized. For instance, impending martyrdom or possible death causing illness.
The Muhammad of the Almighty Triune God of The Final Trial would not stand in the way of Muslims coming to Our Lord Jesus Christ and being baptized in Him as the Injeel commands. The Mohammed of Ahmadiyya is the same as the Mohammot of al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah and both are antichrists and contradict the clear commands of God in the Injeel and Taurat and Quran.
Noble Quran
003.045 Behold! the angels said: "O Mary! God giveth thee glad tidings of a Word from Him: his name will be Christ Jesus, the son of Mary, held in honour in this world and the Hereafter and of (held in honor by the company of the prophets and saints) those nearest to God;
003.046 "He shall speak to the people in childhood and in maturity. And he shall be (adhered to by the company) of the righteous."
003.047 She said: "O my Lord! How shall I have a son when no man hath touched me?" He said: "Even so: God createth what He willeth: When He hath decreed a plan, He but saith to it, 'Be,' and it is!
003.048 "And God will teach him [Jesus Christ] the Book [alkitaba = all sacred writing from God Most High] and Wisdom [hikma = sophia = uncreated wisdom of God one with His Holy Spirit], the Law [Taurat fulfilled in the Gospel of Jesus Christ] and the Gospel [of Jesus Christ],"
As the Word of God Jesus Christ willed to learn in His Incarnation what He already possessed and knew prior to His Incarnation as part of His kenosis (emptying out of Himself and taking upon Himself our nature while in no way losing anything of what He already was as God by nature and Son of God as the Second Person of the undivided Trinity) and as an example to us of how we in humility must follow God the Father and the Son Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit.
The resurrection of Christ. His commission to his disciples.
1 And *in the end of the sabbath, when it began to dawn towards the first day of the week,
18 And Jesus coming, spoke to them, saying: All power is given to me in heaven and in earth.
19 *Going, therefore, teach ye all nations: baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit;
20 Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and behold I am with you all days, even to the consummation of the world.
"Consummation of the world," - the end of this age of grace and the beginning of the eternal ages with Christ reigning visibly. This is the end of the eschaton and the beginning of the eternal recreated heavens and the earth and will begin when Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ returns from heaven in the same flesh He rose with and ascended into the third heaven with, seated at the right hand of the Father. His return will be with all of His elect angels. He will raise and judge all men in the flesh and then recreate the heavens and the earth, which in that state will last that way for eternity. There will NOT be any sin in the new heavens and earth, so prepare now by confessing the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit and be baptized as commanded above and shown how to baptize below and live Holy and Godly lives in sincerity and humility and meekness waiting for the Lord when He returns so that we are not like the five foolish virgins but are like the five wise virgins.
____________________
*
1: A.D. 30.; Mark xvi. 1.; John xx. 1.
19: Mark xvi. 15.
====================
Method of Baptism
From the Didache (49 A.D. Council of Jerusalem):
Chapter 7. Concerning Baptism.
And concerning baptism, baptize this way: Having first said all these things, baptize the one to be baptized into Jesus Christ in "the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit," in running water. But if you have no running water, baptize into other water [still water]; and if you cannot do so in cold water, do so in warm. But if you have neither, pour out water three times upon the head onto the one to be baptized saying at that time "in the name of Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit." But before the baptism, if possible, let the baptizer fast, and the baptized, and whoever else can; but you shall order the baptized [when there is time] to fast one or two days before.
Baptism can and should always be performed immediately when there is danger of death of the one to be baptized. For instance, impending martyrdom or possible death causing illness.
The Muslim feast of Eid only commemorates the typological sacrifice by Abraham of Issac. That prefigured the final and only Supreme Sacrifice of Jesus Christ on His Most Holy Cross. It is only by the Sacrifice of Christ on His Cross that we are saved. Jesus Christ commanded, not suggested, that we be baptized; echoing the rest of the Church Fathers, St. Augustine noted that if someone could not be baptized even though they wanted it and did everything they could to be baptized in the water in name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, then their confession of faith is enough for their salvation. But no where are we allowed to refuse baptism.
All Muslims and everyone who will, are invited and encouraged to come to the water of life now and be baptized in the water and in the Spirit in name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit and receive Communion.
For Noah and Abraham as Prophecies of Baptism in Our Only Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ see:
There is no evolution, to be baptized in Our Only Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ one must believe in the truth of literal Creation by God and no pantheistic syncretism with deistic design and the rest of pagan evolutionary theory.
For all Jews wishing to convert sincerely from the heart to Jesus Christ now, here is a prayer based on the biblical Hebrew of the prophets of the Old Testament and the Septuagint Greek of the Old Testament and the New Testament and Arabic.
(The Arabic, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, means the same as God Almighty, or 'O Theos 'O Pantocrator, in Septuagint Greek.)
In the below “Dam (Blood) Kadosh (Holy) bet Yeshua ha Maschiach (Jesus Christ) kanawn anawim (have mercy on Your faithful [those who turn to God by the shed Blood of Christ on Calvary])” is asking for God's forgiveness by the shed Holy Blood of Christ – which is the only forgiveness there is from God for sin.
There are six major ethnic groups in Ghana where Peter Turkson is from: Ashanti, Ewe, Guma, Guan, Mole-Dagbani and Ga-Adangbe.
Serpent worship is rife throughout the entire of West Africa and has its origin in the sorceries of Pharaoh who opposed the True God and the True God's servant Moses.
This is what has destroyed - and is still destroying all of Africa.
2009 Oct 24, Pope Benedict XVI appointed Cardinal Peter Turkson (61) of Ghana to head the Vatican's justice and peace office, a high-profile post that cements his reputation as a possible future papal candidate. Turkson's appointment to his new post was announced at the end of a three-week Vatican meeting on the role of the Catholic Church in Africa. (AP, 10/24/09)
Benedict XVI in Benin: The Pope's growing African flock
18 November 11 07:44 ET
By David Willey
BBC News, Benin
Why should Pope Benedict want to travel nearly 10,000km (6,000 miles) on a weekend visit to Africa?
The basic reason is that his Catholic flock in Africa has increased faster there than in any other part of the world during the past 50 years.
The Pope has just been forced to set up a new programme of evangelisation in Europe, where Catholics have been leaving the church in ever greater numbers.
In Europe there is a serious problem of renewing an ageing priesthood.
In West Africa his flock is flourishing, despite antagonism and even violence between Christians and Muslims in several countries. New vocations are booming.
The Ouidah Catholic seminary is the burgeoning training ground for new African priests who - 150 years after the first Catholic missionaries from Switzerland established themselves there - are prepared to reverse the missionary direction and carry out pastoral work among Europeans in Europe.
Voodoo heartland
But Ouidah is also a centre for traditional African religions. It is the heartland of Voodoo, whose rituals and beliefs travelled to the Caribbean and to South America, particularly Brazil, during the centuries when slavery depopulated West Africa.
There is still a Voodoo temple filled with sacred pythons in Ouidah, not far from the huge Catholic seminary.
Voodoo is a belief system with a culture which includes art, dance, music, rituals, medicine, and is expressed in several languages.
Nearly half the population of Benin still follow traditional African animist religions such as Voodoo. Many who have converted to Catholicism still refuse to abandon their former beliefs entirely.
The Catholic Church however has a problem with this. It is called syncretism, which means treating all religions on the same footing.
Right-wing Catholic traditionalists denounced the late Pope John Paul II for allegedly "consorting with Satan" when he invited an African animist to take part in his groundbreaking interfaith prayer for world peace in the Italian city of Assisi, the shrine of Saint Francis, back in 1986.
Pope John Paul's successor, Benedict, invited another African traditional religious leader to celebrate with him the 25th anniversary of that meeting only last month. But this time there were no public prayers together, only private meditation.
The Catholic Church, which cannot tolerate the idea of Protestants and Catholics sharing the same communion table, has even greater difficulty in reconciling the worship of Jesus Christ side-by-side with African animists offering libations to spirits of the forest.
Large retinue
The Pope travelled to Cotonou, the economic capital of Benin, with a larger retinue of advisers than usual on his travels.
All the senior Vatican Cardinals who work in the Roman Curia were invited by the pope to join him for the six-hour flight.
They included Cardinal Peter Appiah Turkson from Ghana, the head of the Vatican's Council for Justice and Peace, the body which monitors human rights records not only in African countries but around the world.
Cardinal Turkson is the first Ghanaian to be appointed to the highest rank of prelates in the Catholic Church. He is even considered to be a possible candidate to succeed Benedict XVI, when the 84-year-old pontiff dies.
Another member of the Pope's retinue is Bishop Barthelemy Adoukonou, a former student of the Pope at the University of Regensburg in Germany, where he taught theology. Monsignor Adoukonou, promoted to the rank of Bishop as recently as last month, is rapidly gaining influence as an adviser in the highest ranks of the Roman Curia.
Sick children
One of Pope Benedict's restricted number of engagements in Benin - but one to which he to which he attaches great importance - is a meeting with 200 sick and disabled children, who are looked after by Catholic missionaries.
He will address all the suffering children of Africa in a speech he plans to make where they live.
Another high point of Pope Benedict's visit to Benin will be a meeting with the head of state, members of the government and members of the diplomatic corps in the presidential palace.
About 3,000 people are expected to attend and Pope Benedict plans another keynote speech, in which he will refer to the many human rights abuses in Africa.
He will refer also to the role of the Church during the democratisation of the country, following Marxist rule after its independence.
Here, he also plans to greet some local leaders of traditional African religions who have been invited for the occasion.
Vatican Radio has produced its first music CD on the occasion of the Pope's African visit.
Five thousand copies will be distributed to representatives of local churches. It is called Afrika Tenda Amani and has been recorded by two popular West African musicians Papa Wemba and Bonga.
Meeting with a voodoo high-priest on February 4, 1993 during his visit to Benin, John Paul II gives the rationale to justify voodoo worship according to the principles of Vatican II.
It is the first time in History that a Pope praised a worship that explicitly worships the Devil.
At right, page 4 of L'Osservatore Romanoand photocopies of the first part of John Paul II's greeting in Italian. Below, our translation of the part highlighted in yellow.
Dear friends, I am pleased to have this occasion to meet you, and I very cordially greet you. As you know, I came to Benin principally to visit with the Catholic community, to encourage it and confirm it in the faith. However, I have always thought that contact with persons who belong to other religious traditions is an important part of my ministry. Indeed, the Catholic Church is favorable to dialogue: dialogue with Christians of other churches and ecclesial communities, dialogue with believers of other spiritual families, and dialogue even with those who do not profess any religion. The Church establishes positive and constructive relations with persons and human groups of other creeds for a reciprocal enrichment. Vatican Council II …. recognized that there are truth and good, seeds of the Word, in the various religious traditions. … These provide the foundations for a fruitful dialogue, as the Apostle Paul said to the first Christians: “Everything that is true, noble, just, pure, amiable, honorable, whatever is virtuous and deserves praise, let all these things be the object of your thinking.” From this comes our approach of respect [toward you]: respect for true values wherever they are, and overall respect for the man who looks to live these values that help him set aside fear. You are strongly attached to the traditions which your ancestors transmitted to you. It is legitimate to be grateful to the ancestors who transmitted to you the sense of the sacral, faith in a one and good god, the taste for celebrations, and consideration for moral life and harmony in society.
(John Paull II, Greeting to a Voodoo high-priest of Benin, published under the title "La libertà religiosa è un diritto inalienabile," in L'Osservatore Romano, February 6, 1993, p. 4)
At bottom of this article "Celebrating 50 Years of Vatican II, Sept. 28" just below : 'Cardinal Peter Kodwo Appiah Turkson, President of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace: "Vatican II and the Challenge of Justice, Peace and the Integrity of Creation in Africa"' and "Cardinal Turkson Presiding"
Challenges and Contributions of the African Church
Friday, Sept. 28 - Morning: Power Center Ballroom
10 a.m.: Why Celebrate 50 years of Vatican II; Challenges/Contributions of the African Church
Laurenti Magesa: Preconciliar, Conciliar and Post-conciliar African Theology
Paulinus Ikechukwu Odozor, From Theology in Africa to African Theology
Friday, Sept. 28 - Afternoon: Wolf Auditorium, Bayer Hall
1 to 2:30 p.m.: Interreligious Dialogue
Michael McCabe - Interreligious Dialogue, Impact on the World and African Church
2:30 p.m. Coffee Break
2:30 to 3:45 p.m. Marriage and Family
Benezet Bujo (Fribourg-Suisse): Vatican II and the Challenge of Marriage and Family in Africa and the World
Response (Challenge/Counterpoise) (David T. Ngong, Alabama): Vatican II, Marriage-procreation, and Childless Marriage of Christians in Africa
4 to 5 p.m. Panel Discussion
Saturday, Sept. 29
2 to 4 p.m. Presentation - Pappert Lecture Hall, Bayer Learning Center
Cardinal Peter Kodwo Appiah Turkson,President of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace: "Vatican II and the Challenge of Justice, Peace and the Integrity of Creation in Africa"
5:30 p.m. Conference Mass - University Chapel, Administration Building
A TV star, "people's person" and a "wonderful" priest, the Ghanaian cardinal emerging as a strong favourite for the papacy is described by colleagues in glowing terms. Peter Turkson, who is president of the Vatican's pontifical council for justice and peace, was made a cardinal by Pope John Paul II in 2003 after serving for almost 30 years as an ordained priest. Continued. . .
Video Title: Cardinal Peter Turkson - Witness. YouTube Video Description - [Channel: saltandlighttv]:
Cardinal Peter Turkson - Archbishop emeritus of Cape Coast (Ghana) and currently President of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace. A priest since 1975, Cardinal Turkson holds a doctorate in Sacred Scripture and served as seminary professor before becoming Archbishop of Cape Coast. Cardinal Turkson has been involved in ecumenical dialogue, governmental work in the area of sustainable development, and is a leading voice in the area of peace and justice issues on the international level.
The Gospel and Social Teaching: On Poverty, Human Development and Church Ministry
Is the world ready for a black Pope? Many would say it has been ready for so long that it is growing a little impatient. Cardinal Peter Turkson, of Ghana, is in no doubt. "Why not? We've had Kofi Annan as Secretary General of the United Nations... he had his problems, but he did it. Now we have Obama in the United States. So if, by divine providence, God would wish to have a black man as pope, I say thanks be to God!"
That was Turkson back in 2009, during a Vatican press conference. And now, after the resignation of Benedict XVI, he has no trouble seeing himself in the frame. Shows of diffidence and modesty are the standard reactions to questions of this sort (though, with hindsight, Benedict's disclaimers back in 2005 seem to have been only too sincere), but that is not the Ghanaian's style. "It would certainly mean a lot if I had to be pope," he mused this week. "If I was elected pope it would signal a lot of [personal] change, very big change in a lot of regards... It is going to be a life-changing experience, and I think that is what it has been for Benedict and those who have gone before us. The challenge will also be with the individual to want to make his mark, not trying to fit into anybody's shoes but finding his own shoes to wear."
Remarks like this may give an impression of arrogance, but Turkson has plenty of reason to consider himself a plausible candidate. Created a cardinal by Pope John Paul II in 2003, he was promoted by Benedict to one of the Roman Curia's top jobs, president of the pontifical council for justice and peace, in 2009, a sure sign of preference, and he has a finger in any number of other Vatican pies. Before that he was named relator, or general secretary, of the Church's second Synod for Africa.
However, a howler the Cardinal committed last year may have damaged his chances: at a meeting of senior Vatican figures last October, he showed a video on the subject of Muslim demographics, predicting that the far higher Muslim birthrate would soon lead to large parts of Europe, including France, being taken over by Islam. The video sparked an uproar which got worse when it emerged that it had been lifted from YouTube and was larded with dodgy statistics.
He did not take long to admit that he had made a mistake. "I understand that I chose the wrong video to stress the point of my concern," he said soon afterwards. And he claimed that his reason for showing the video was completely misunderstood. "For me to attack Islam would be to attack my own family," he maintained. "My paternal uncle was a Muslim and he took care of me when I was a boy, and when he grew old I took care of him until he died. The point was not to be anti-Islam. Absolutely not! The point was to highlight the demographic situation as a result of the anti-life tendency and culture in the Western world where, as I see it, there is a great need to apply the values of the kingdom of God to the social order." In fact, Turkson has urged Catholics to study the Koran, as an aid to better understanding.
Born in the village of Nsuta-Wassaw in western Ghana in 1948, he was christened Peter Kodwo Appiah Turkson and brought up speaking Fante, one of seven languages he went on to master. His roots were humble, his mother selling vegetables in the local market while his father – with symbolism as obvious as the boy's given name – was a carpenter.
His prospects were transformed by his schooling at St Teresa's Seminary in the village of Amisano, which describes itself as "the cradle and nerve centre of priestly formation in Ghana... forming future shepherds after the Lord's own heart". He went on to study Theology at a seminary in New York, where he moonlighted as a cleaner in a bank, leading to a ludicrous brush with the law. A friend of his in the city, Dr Joseph Marrota, an orthopaedic surgeon, recalled that a passer-by had spotted him roaming through the closed bank and called the cops. "It was 8 or 9 o'clock and they wanted to know what he was doing there," Marrota told the New York Daily News. "He told them the truth, that he was cleaning the bank. They were going to arrest him and he had to call the cleaning service. He almost got taken away."
Dr Marrota compared him to the last pope-but-one. "Like John Paul II, he's an outdoorsman, an athlete, a physically powerful man," he said. "He has that unbelievable combination of intellect, character and charisma." He said that Turkson requires only four hours of sleep a night and, unlike many other Princes of the Church, is thoroughly at home with his iPod and iPad.
After New York, he returned to St Teresa's Seminary with his Master's degree and taught there for a spell, following in the footsteps of the future Ghanaian president, Kwame Nkrumah. The effect of the place on the two men seems to have been similar: Nkrumah recalled in his autobiography: "As a teacher of these young novices, I, too, had to observe the strict rules of the seminary and my life at Amisano was quiet and lonely... but it was certainly during this period that I regained the religious fervour to such an extent that I formed the idea of taking the vocation to the priesthood myself." In 1975, Turkson was duly ordained, then pursued his studies further at the Pontifical Biblical Institute in Rome.
Since then, his ascent of the clerical ladder has been sure, and his promotion to cardinal by John Paul II was proof that Francis Arinze, the Nigerian cardinal who for many years was spoken of as being of papal material, now had a serious African rival. This week, Turkson suggested that Arinze, despite sharing top billing with him in one or two bookmakers' lists, was no longer in the running. "Before I got here [to Rome], there was a young African cardinal called Arinze from Nigeria," he told the Daily Telegraph, "and at every conclave everybody was talking about him as an emerging candidate. Arinze is now 80 and actually there is no way he can participate in the conclave..."
There are plenty of other papabile cardinals beside the Ghanaian, and Vatican watchers are all too familiar with the Roman proverb, "He who goes into the conclave a Pope comes out a cardinal." But supposing Turkson were to make the grade, what sort of a pope would he be?
Liberal Catholics hanker for a pontiff who would relax the Church's policy on issues such as gay marriage and abortion, but Turkson, like practically all the front-runners, is not going to be that man: the majority of the 118 voting cardinals were appointed by John Paul II and Benedict, both stalwart conservatives who had no wish to encourage more permissive attitudes. Like most African Catholics, Turkson is hostile to a liberal approach to these questions, describing Europe's falling birthrate as a product of its "anti-life culture". His ambition to, as he puts it, "apply the values of the kingdom of God and the gospel to the social order" places him directly in the line of the present Pope and his predecessor. Referring to the video that got him into trouble, he said that he showed it "to illustrate this reality in the Western world and to emphasise that if we do not evangelise the social order, it is capable of giving rise to all kinds of problems for society".
Within the rather narrow spectrum of views found in the Vatican, however, he is seen as a moderate. "A smart, hard-working and charming prelate... he's destined to be an ecclesiastical star even if he never takes over the Church's top job," Vatican watcher John Allen wrote in America's National Catholic Reporter in 2009. "Theologically, he's seen as a moderate: for example, Turkson has signalled openness to the argument that condoms might be appropriate for couples where one partner is HIV-positive and the other isn't, on the logic that the intent in that case is not to prevent pregnancy but to prevent disease."
Many outside the church would see that as a tragically myopic understanding of the argument for condom use in Africa. But it may be the best that the Catholic Church, in its present form, can come up with.
A Life In Brief
Born: Peter Kodwo Appiah Turkson, 11 October 1948, Nsuta-Wassaw, Ghana
Family: His mother sold vegetables at a market while his father worked as a carpenter. He is the fourth of ten children.
Education: Studied at St Teresa's Seminary in Amisano, Ghana, before attending St Anthony-on-Hudson Seminary in Rensselaer, New York where he graduated as a Master of Theology.
Career: He was ordained to the priesthood in 1975. After working as a professor and vice-rector at various seminaries, in 1987 he attended the Pontifical Biblical Institute in Rome and received a doctorate in Sacred Scripture. In 1992 he was appointed archbishop of Cape Coast in Ghana and in 2003 John Paul II made Turkson a Cardinal. He is the frontrunner to succeed Benedict XVI as the next Pope.
He says: "If God would wish to see a black man also as pope, thanks be to God."
They say: "He is a wonderful person, very down to earth and humble. He has that human touch." (The Rev Stephen Domelevo, the Ghana Catholic communication office)
Zionism is evil (which has nothing to do with the prophets
of God in the Old Testament) and Christian Zionism is evil (which has
nothing to do with Our Lord Jesus Christ and his faithful Christians).
These: Zionism and Christian Zionism, are both
Satanic heresies.
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