In its 75 years U.S. Catholic has also covered the global church. Cardinal Peter Turkson of Ghana shares with us how we are all connected. 

When Cardinal Peter Turkson flies from Ghana to Italy, all the passengers are escorted by police to a small entry point at the airport in Rome, where their documents are checked even before they get to immigration.  

“Why all this scrutiny?” Turkson asks. “It is because of where the plane is coming from: Africa.”

While his diplomatic passport from the Vatican helps him avoid much hassle, Turkson says that this reality illustrates the current relationship between the global North and South. Africa may be the future of the church, but it is global relationships—through immigration, industry, the environment, and faith—that concern Turkson.

After serving as relator (secretary) for the Synod of Bishops for Africa last fall, Turkson was appointed as president of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace. At 61 Turkson is the youngest African cardinal—and now the highest-ranked African in Rome.

National Catholic Reporter’s John Allen Jr. says that “he’s destined to be an ecclesiastical star” and perhaps even the first black pope, though Turkson says he wouldn’t want the job.

“The truth is that our world is still too color sensitive,” he told Justice Magazine earlier this year. “All that would make the work (of a black pope) more difficult.”

At last year’s Synod for Africa you talked about the “lust of some multinational corporations” who are pillaging the natural resources of Africa. What effect has this had?

First off, this is not just an issue in Africa. We recently had a bishop from Brazil visiting us in Rome who was explaining that a new dam is going to be built in the Amazon that will displace many indigenous communities.

As archbishop in Ghana, I was involved in mining issues. We were trying to respond to what the pope highlighted in his Peace Day message this year: solidarity with future generations and with all people who depend on the land for their livelihood.

It’s easier and cheaper for mining companies in Ghana to do surface mining. As a result, villages are being wiped out, and the companies build a few shacks for the displaced people and leave it at that. But it’s not just about people’s homes. When you move people off the land that they have been farming, you are also taking away their jobs and livelihoods. People think mining companies bring jobs, but when we visited those areas we found that far more jobs were lost than new ones created.

The other part is that, after the surface mining, the forest cover and the top soil are gone. What’s left behind is a deep, gaping crater. Mining companies claim it is not cost-effective to refill those craters. When I challenged them about that, they told me they were going to put in a fish pond. Actually there’s cyanide in these holes, so this is not a viable option.

It’s not only multinational companies that are to blame but our governments, too. We need to talk to the government officials who sign these contracts to make sure that they won’t sign away the future and the destiny of our environment.

How can American Catholics respond to this situation?

The first thing is for American Catholics to become knowledgeable about it. The second thing is that these days nobody can pretend that when there is an ecological disaster in one place, it only affects that locale. We are all interdependent.

Take the hurricanes in the United States: The winds start out over the Sahara, and the deforestation that happens through surface mining in Ghana is accelerating the expansion of the Sahara. That might contribute to the increase in hurricanes in the Caribbean and the United States.

We all need to recognize this ecological interdependence. And Americans and Europeans also need to know that the worsening of living conditions in Africa and elsewhere will have direct repercussions through increased migration.

You already have all kinds of laws in place to keep people out of your countries. But the worse it gets in countries of the global South, the more people are going to show up in the North. You can’t stop them. So paying attention to global economic issues is directly in your interest.

You are currently the highest-ranking African cardinal in the Roman Curia. How would you describe the state of racial justice within the church?

I’m reluctant to equate lack of knowledge and familiarity between Europeans and Africans with racism. Often it’s not racism; it’s just that people don’t know much about each other.

Europeans and Americans sometimes act like they think people in Africa are still living in trees. Maybe that’s from what they’ve seen in movies. People tell me that they don’t know much about Ghana or Africa.