Cardinal Turkson to address largest group of American Catholic priests

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Cardinal Peter Turkson, head of the Vatican-based Dicastery for the Promotion of Integral Human Development, has agreed to address the June 2022 assembly of the Association of Catholic Priests of the United States (AUSCP) in Baltimore.

The AUSCP with approximately 1,200 priests in its ranks is the largest association of priests in the United States. It was founded in 2011 as a support group for priests who draw inspiration from the teaching of Vatican Council II (1962-65) and its continued implementation.

Turkson, accepted the invitation to address the assembly following a personal visit by the AUSCP Executive Director, Father Stephen Newton, to the cardinal’s office in the Vatican.

The cardinal, who was born in Ghana, recently made headlines for dismissing claims that US President Joe Biden is being denied Communion.

There is an ongoing debate among American bishops as to whether Catholic politicians should be denied Communion because of their stance and policies in favor of the right to abortion.

Turkson’s comments to reporters preceded the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops General Assembly, which begins Nov. 15.

The AUSCP had called on the bishops not to use the Eucharist as a political weapon – whether overt or camouflaged – before the virtual plenary assembly of the USCCB from June 16 to 18, when the bishops voted to draft a formal statement on what the Eucharist means. In the church.

Turkson, 73, joins a list of prominent Catholic speakers at the June 20-23 priests’ assembly, which is held under the theme, Dreaming: The Path to a Better Future. ”

Speakers will include Bishop John Stowe, OFM Conv. of Lexington; Franciscan Father Dan Horan, Director of the Spirituality Center at Saint Mary’s College in Notre Dame, Ind; and Mary Novak, executive director of the NETWORK Lobby for Catholic Social Justice.

Bishop Stowe, a member of the AUSCP, is known to be in favor of the pending equality law, legislation which the USCCB opposes. He was quoted as saying “It is our duty to love and defend” LGBTQ Americans.

When it held its first meeting in 2012, right after its founding, few bishops in the United States were enthusiastic about AUSCP.

Then, at their 2016 meeting in Chicago, Cardinal Blase Cupich of Chicago presided over mass with the group. Since then, the AUSCP has had a prominent American bishop at each of its annual gatherings.

Archbishop John C. Wester of Santa Fe delivered the opening address in 2020 and the assembly’s president and mass homilist was Archbishop Christopher Pierre, Vatican Nuncio to the United States.

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