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Cardinal Peter Turkson, who is considered one of Pope Francis’ top allies on humanitarian issues such as migrants and the environment, has reportedly resigned as prefect of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development (DPIHD), an office he’s led since 2016.
Several Vatican sources confirmed reports of the cardinal’s resignation, which first appeared Thursday evening on traditionalist websites. The sources said the 73-year-old Ghanaian would likely step down on January 1st and that several other senior officials at the dicastery may also be resigning.
Rumours of a shake-up have been circulating for some time at the DPIHD.
Pope Francis created the dicastery in 2016 by merging four previously existing pontifical councils and their combined number of some 60 employees into one mega-office. It’s located in Trastevere at the Vatican-owned Palazzo San Callisto.
Cardinal Turkson had headed one of the now-defunct councils (Justice and Peace) since 2009 at the time he was given his current post.
The dicastery is a key component to putting the pope’s social teaching into practical action. It has the fifth-largest budget of the Roman Curia, rounding out at some 13.24 million euros in 2020.
Only the Congregation for Oriental Churches (18.4 million), the worldwide network of papal nunciatures (39.2 million) and the Dicastery for Communication (43.7 million) are allocated more money.
Serious internal tensions
The DPIHD budget was further increased after the health crisis, due to the establishment of the Vatican Covid Commission.
The commission, which facilitates strategies for creating a better world in the aftermath of the pandemic, has recourse to external consultants and has been exempted from a Vatican hiring freeze imposed in 2014.
The dicastery is even allowed to pay employees on fixed-term contracts higher salaries than people who work in other Vatican departments.
But, according to several inside sources, merging the four previous offices into one has created some very strong tensions, mostly due to coordinating difficulties.
Investigation and resignations
That prompted Pope Francis to call on Cardinal Blaise Cupich of Chicago last June and ask him to lead a “visitation” (or investigation) of the dicastery and assess its functioning.
The cardinal and two assistants completed their work on July 1 and it is understood that they recommended that the specific tasks of each of the dicastery’s sections be more clearly defined.
Turkson’s resignation would mark the failure of the merger of the dicastery, at least in the way it has functioned up to now.
Father Augusto Zampini, an Argentinean priest to whom the pope gave a key managerial role in the Covid commission, abruptly resigned last August.
It is understood that he was given one day to pack up and return to his home diocese. La Croix was told by sources that, curiously, the priest completely destroyed his personal archives before leaving Rome.
Meanwhile, Salesian Sister Alessandra Smerilli, a 46-year-old economist, was appointed at the end of August to be the secretary (or the Number 2 official) of the dicastery.
She replaced Bruno-Marie Duffé, a priest from France who had completed a five-year term.
- Source: First published in La-Croix International. Republished with permission.
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