Pope John Paul II appoints 31 cardinals, three from Africa

Pope John Paul II appointed 31 new cardinals; three of them were from Africa. These were the Nigerian Cardinal Anthony Olubunmi Okogie, Ghananian Peter Turkson, and the Sudanese Gabriel Zubeir Wako. However, the appointment of Wako had serious political implications for him, and his country's minority Christian population. Wako had openly criticised the Sudanese government's policies of Islamacisation and Arabisation, which sought to transform the country into an Islamic-Arabic country. Because of this policy, many Christians were forced to convert to Islam as a means of escaping poverty and state intimidation. For more than 20 years, the Sudanese government did not given permission to Christians to erect churches, whilst at the same time destroying many church buildings and church-run schools because they provided an alternative to state-run schools and were regarded as a threat to the official religion. The appointment of Wako highlighted many hardships experienced by Christians and other religious minorities like the indegenous animist religion. The Pope's appointment of these three cardinals and others from the third world was part of the Catholic Church's aim to revamp interest in the church and church membership. The appointment of cardinals from the third world fuelled speculations that the next pope would come from the Third World, in particular Africa. The Catholic Church hoped that this measure will halt declining church membership.