Global mission to be theme of top cardinal’s AMRI address

A top Vatican cardinal is to address Irish religious next month on the Church’s missionary role in the wider world.

Ghanaian Cardinal Peter Turkson, the first head of the Holy See’s new ‘super-dicastery’, the Office for Promoting Integral Human Development, will speak on the theme of ‘Mission Today in Our Common Home’ at the Autumn conference of AMRI, the Association of Leaders of Missionaries and Religious of Ireland.

As head of the Office for Promoting Integral Human Development, Cardinal Turkson is responsible for spearheading the Church’s responses to climate change, the mass movements of people, and people trafficking. Widely touted in 2013 as a possible successor to Pope Benedict XVI, he was largely responsible for the first draft of Pope Francis’ 2015 encyclical Laudato Si’: On Care for our Common Home.

The cardinal will headline the conference which will also include speakers tackling related issues such people trafficking, migrants and refugees, climate justice, and homelessness, while leadership teams will present their contemporary missions and workshops will be centred on Laudato Si’, dialogue with Irish society and the whole area of loss and grief.

AMRI will follow the October 3 conference in Dublin’s Emmaus Conference Centre with a joint symposium with World Missions Ireland in Thurles on October 12 entitled ‘Crossing the Others: The Changing Face of World Mission’.