Victims sexually abused by priests name Ghana’s Turkson among 12 blacklisted cardinals ahead of Pope election

A group made up of victims abused by Catholic priests has listed Ghana’s Cardinal Peter Appiah Turkson among 12 worst cardinals who are likely to become the next Pope.

According to the Chicago-based Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP), they listed the 12 cardinals based on their approach to handling child sex abuse claims.

“The following twelve papal candidates are the ones that we are most worried about becoming the next pope,” said SNAP on March 5, 2013.

These twelve were chosen based exclusively on their actions and/or public comments about child sex abuse and cover up in the church, it added.

On Cardinal Peter Turkson, SNAP said “He recently claimed that there were few child molesting clerics in Africa because they didn’t tolerate gay people there.”

Cardinal Turkson apparently made the comment during a recent interview with CNN’s Christiane Amanpour.

All odds and bookmakers favour Appiah Turkson to become the next Pope, something the cardinal says an African can be.

“It is certainly possible to have a Cardinal come from the Southern part of the globe,” Turkson told CNN’s Amanpour February 12, 2013, citing the long history of the Church in Latin America and Cardinals from Africa and Asia now taking important leadership positions.

“So the possibility that a candidate, or that any of the Cardinals, to be elected Pope can come from the southern part of the globe is very real,” Cardinal Turkson added. (Watch Turkson’s interview with Amanpour below)

Over a hundred cardinals are currently in Vatican to elect the next Pontiff of the Catholic Church after Pope Benedict XVI resigned.

SNAP tagged the blacklisted cardinals as “Dirty Dozen”. The following are the names of the cardinals:

1) Cardinal Norberto Rivera Carrera, Mexico
2) Cardinal Oscar Rodriguez Maradiaga, Honduras
3) Cardinal Timothy Dolan, New York
4) Cardinal Angelo Scola, Italy
5) Cardinal George Pell, Australia
6) Cardinal Dominik Duka, Czech Republic
7) Cardinal Tarsicio Bertone, Italy
8) Cardinal Donald Wuerl, Washington D.C.
9) Cardinal Marc Ouellet, Quebec, Canada
10) Cardinal Sean O’Malley, Boston
11) Cardinal Leonardo Sandri, Argentina
12) Cardinal Peter Turkson, Ghana

By Ekow Quandzie