Jean-Pierre Kutwa

At an Easter Mass in April 2022, Cardinal Kutwa defended marriage between a man and a woman as the Creator's design and called marriage between two people of the same sex an 'abomination'. After the publication of Fiducia supplicans in December 2023, his archdiocese asked all priests and deacons of Abidjan to wait for and follow his instructions before any blessing of same-sex couples. Little public information exists on his positions on other moral questions.

No public statement by Cardinal Kutwa on the traditional Mass, Traditionis custodes or other liturgical questions could be found. He is a priest trained in biblical theology (doctorate at the Pontifical Urbaniana University) and has no recorded position in this debate.

Cardinal Kutwa has repeatedly intervened in Ivorian public life. In 2020 he urged non-violence, dialogue and respect for the rule of law before the presidential election, called a third-term candidacy 'unnecessary', and asked for the release of people arrested after unrest. He has also raised environmental concerns such as the destruction of the Banco forest and global warming.

Created a cardinal by Pope Francis in 2014, Cardinal Kutwa has publicly relayed the Pope's messages, for example on the 2020 World Day of Peace. He has not been associated with public criticism of the pontificate, nor with a prominent role in its reforms. His response to Fiducia supplicans was to ask clergy in Abidjan to wait for his instructions.

During the 2011 crisis Cardinal Kutwa focused his efforts on interreligious dialogue and reconciliation, and he has described Ivory Coast as a land of friendship and fraternity regardless of religion. In 2020 he welcomed local cohesion initiatives among Catholics, Harrists and Muslims. No statement on the Abu Dhabi Document was found.

Cardinal Kutwa communicates mainly through homilies, festive messages and pastoral letters to Ivorians, in a classic pastoral register. On occasion his language is direct, as in his 2020 letter on the electoral climate and his 2021 appeal to politicians not to waste time in 'useless disputes'. He has little international media presence.