African Pope to Fill the Vacancy in Vatican City?

Ghana’s Peter Turkson

On February 28th, Pope Benedict stepped down as pope. Now, Vatican City observers, 1.2 billion Catholics, the media, and bookies have all been left with one question–Who will be the next pope? We at Africa.com ask, will it be another African pope?  

In our slideshow below, we look at the fast-paced growth of the Catholic Church in Africa, and the leading African candidate to be pope: Ghana’s Cardinal Peter Turkson. 

Entitled ”Papal Question Time–with your host St. Gelasius,” we imagine what the three African popes in the Church’s history would say if they were alive today. (Yes, there were African popes–the last of whose papacy ended in 396.) Cardinal Turkson would be the first ever black African pope.

Check it out. For more coverage on the next pope, be sure to sign up for our Daily Top 10 newsletter, and to follow us on Facebook, and Twitter. As always, be sure to leave your comments and questions below.