Gabriel Bouys/ AFP-Getty Images

Ghanaian Cardinal Peter Kodwo Appiah Turkson attends a mass at St. Peter's basilica on Tuesday in Vatican City.

CAPE COAST, Ghana — On Sundays in the Ghanaian city of Cape Coast, the pews in Roman Catholic churches do something most Americans would find surprising. They fill up. 

Unlike the typical 45-minute Mass in the United States, these services are two and a half hours long, but that’s what churchgoers come for. Those who show up late will find a few plastic chairs arranged outside. Better luck next week. 

The West Coast of Africa is one of the only places in the world where Catholicism is growing. Since 2005, the number of Catholics on the African continent has grown by more than 20% and it is expected to continue at that pace for the next decade.

There are also plenty of priests. In fact, seminaries here are producing so many priests, they often move to Europe to fill a growing shortage.

So it’s no surprise, really, that the cardinal from Ghana, Cardinal Peter Turkson, was discussed as a likely candidate for pope in the early days after Pope Benedict announced he was stepping down. It now seems he is a long shot, but there are still plenty of people pulling for him here.

After Mass last Sunday in Cape Coast, the city about 100 miles from Ghana's capital Accra where Turkson served as archbishop, one parishioner summed up his chances this way: "We never thought a half black man would be president of the U.S. But it happened and he is doing okay. So [Turkson] could be the pope."

Alberto Pizzoli/ AFP-Getty Images

A mock electoral placard showing Ghanaian Cardinal Peter Turkson, which reads, "during the conclave, vote Turkson," seen in front of the Santa Maria Maggiore basilica in Rome on March 1.

From village to archdiocese 
The 64-year-old was born in the small mining village of Nsuta Wassa, in Western Ghana, the fourth of ten children. His father scraped by as a carpenter in a local mine while his mother sold vegetables on the street, sometimes helped by her young son Peter. School was held at the Catholic Church near the foot of the manganese mine. In the afternoons, the future cardinal played soccer and fished with his friends.

Those early years helped shape Turkson, making him as much a social advocate as a leader of the church. Like many African bishops, he has focused on economic equality, environmental issues and peace. Turkson believes the church plays a vital role in stepping up where governments fail.

In the Cape Coast archdiocese, which Turkson ran for nearly two decades, the Catholic Church provides 60-70% of all health and education services. The cardinal helped open Mercy Hospital, a facility that focuses on women’s healthcare.

Patrick Yamoa, the doctor who runs the hospital, says the number of patients served has skyrocketed since its opening two years ago, from 80 people a week to 300 a day. Yamoa said that as a teenager he wanted to become a priest — until he met Cardinal Turkson who convinced the young science whiz to pursue medicine. Ghana was in desperate need of good doctors. 

Just two weeks ago, before heading to Rome for the conclave, Turkson dropped in to check up on the clinic's finances and discovered the hospital needs a new ambulance. Yamoa suspects that with Turkson’s help they will get it by the end of the month.

He's also not surprised the cardinal stopped by even during this very busy time. "That is an attribute that endears him to many people," said Yamoa.

In 2009, Pope Benedict promoted Turkson to President of the Pontifical Council of Peace and Justice. The council focuses on war and good business practices, including the causes of the recent global financial meltdown.

This experience, combined with his pedigree (Turkson speaks eight languages), and the skills he learned as head of a diocese, have led many to consider him a well-rounded candidate for the top job.

But Archbishop Matthias Kobena Nketsiah, the current head of the Cape Coast archdiocese, said he doesn’t believe the Catholic Church is ready for its first black pope. "One problem would be acceptability. That people would accept a black pope…Not everybody. No."

Slideshow: Electing a pope

L'Osservatore Romano via AP

Cardinals from around the world gather in the Vatican to elect the next leader of the Roman Catholic Church.

Launch slideshow

Related: 

 From Rome to Africa: Meet 20 men who could be pope

Conclave smoke signals a bit of a gray area

Full coverage of the papal abdication from NBC News

AFP / Getty Images, file

Ghanaian President John Atta Mills is shown last August.

ACCRA -- Ghana's President John Atta Mills has died unexpectedly, a presidential statement said, and an aide said his death occurred on Tuesday after he took ill on Monday night.

The death of the president of the world's No. 2 cocoa grower comes months before Mills was due to stand for re-election at the helm of the West African country that posted double-digit growth in 2011 and has been praised for its strong democracy in a turbulent region.

Vice President John Dramani Mahama was scheduled to be sworn in later Tuesday. According to the country's constitution, Mahama will complete Mills' term that was due to end with elections in December.

"It is with a heavy heart ... that we announce the sudden and untimely death of the president of the Republic of Ghana," a statement sent to Reuters by the president's office said.

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It said that Mills, 68, died a few hours after being taken ill but no further details were given.

A presidential aide, who asked not to be named, said the president had complained of pains on Monday evening and died early on Tuesday afternoon when his condition worsened.

Mills, who oversaw the start of oil production in Ghana, returned from medical checks in the United States several weeks ago.

The BBC reported he had recently suffered from throat cancer.

Mills was married to Ernestina Naadu Mills, an educator, and has a son, Sam Kofi Atta Mills, according to his official online profile.

In March, President Barack Obama received the Ghanaian president in the Oval Office and praised him and his country as "a good-news story" in Africa.

On Tuesday, the U.S. State Department said it "learned with sadness" about Mills' death.

"Our thoughts go to his family and to the people of Ghana, who have lost a beloved leader," said Victoria Nuland, State Department spokeswoman.

Ghana's election commission said December's presidential and parliamentary elections would go ahead as planned.

"The election calendar remains unchanged - it's purely a party matter," election chief Kwadwo Afari-Gyan told Reuters, explaining that it was up to the ruling National Democratic Congress to find a candidate to replace Mills.

Ghana has seen democratic elections decide its leadership no fewer than four times since the last military coup in 1981, a rare feat in a region where power is still just as often determined by the bullet as by the ballot.

Neighbor Ivory Coast has not been so peaceful, suffering months of violence last year after a disputed election. Near-neighbors Liberia and Sierra Leone suffered years of war.

A glance at Ghana's recent history:

July 1960: Kwame Nkrumah becomes president of the Republic of Ghana, months after a republican constitution is ratified by a referendum. Nkrumah is overthrown after a military coup in February 1966.

August 1969: A new constitution is ratified leading to a transfer of power to the civilian government of Kofi Busia. Busia is ousted in coup in January 1972 led by Colonel Ignatius Acheampong. General Frederick Akuffo takes over in 1978.

June 1979: Akuffo is deposed in a coup led by Flight Lieutenant Jerry Rawlings. Elections are held and in September Rawlings hands over power to a new president, Hilla Limann. Limann is also overthrown in coup in 1981, again led by Rawlings, after two years of weak economic policies. Rawlings is elected president in November 1992.

June 1994: Leaders of Ghana's warring northern tribes sign a peace accord after fighting erupted in the north in February, pitting landless Konkombas against three allied tribes. Independent sources estimated up to 5,000 people were killed by mid-April.

January 2001: Former opposition leader John Kufuor is sworn in as president after Rawlings served the two elected terms he was allowed.

June 2007: London-based Tullow Oil Plc says it has found up to 600 million barrels of oil offshore.

January 2009: Electoral Commission declares John Atta Mills winner after he defeated Nana Akufo-Addo of the ruling New Patriotic Party in run off presidential elections.

July 2009: Visiting U.S. President Barack Obama assures Africa it will not be sidelined from world affairs and hails democratic Ghana as a model for other African countries.

December 2010:Mills opens the valves in a ceremony at a floating oil platform off the country's Atlantic coast. Initial production of around 120,000 bpd will rank Ghana as sub-Saharan Africa's seventh largest producer.

July 2011: Mills is chosen as ruling National Democratic Congress party's candidate for the 2012 presidential election, defeating Nana Konadu Agyemang-Rawlings, wife of the former president.

December 2011: Ghana says it has exported 23.5 million barrels of crude oil from the Jubilee oilfield in its first year of production. Tullow Oil is the lead company of the consortium operating the Jubilee field.

July 24, 2012: Mills dies in office.

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ACCRA, Ghana - Police in Ghana have arrested two U.S. nationals working as volunteers for the Peace Corps aid program in Ghana in connection with the killing of a local man who tried to rob them, police said Monday.

A police officer in the northern town of Wa said the incident happened over the weekend when they were attacked by two robbers.

One Peace Corps volunteer fought back with a knife, fatally wounding one of the assailants, the officer, who declined to be named because he was not authorized to speak to media, told Reuters.

According to a report in the Accra-based newspaper the Daily Graphic, cited by Bloomberg, the thief had attacked one of the volunteers with a machete.

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The U.S. Embassy in the capital Accra confirmed that police were investigating an incident involving Peace Corps volunteers.

"They were involved in a safety and security situation in the early hours of Saturday and the police are investigating," embassy spokeswoman Sara Stryker said.

Reuters contributed to this report.

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Sunday Alamba / AP

Onlookers gather at the site of a plane crash Sunday in Lagos, Nigeria,

Updated at 5:19 p.m. ET: Nigerian authorities said Sunday that as many as 153 people were aboard a Dana Airlines passenger jet that crashed into a two-story building in Lagos, the country's largest city. "I don't believe there are any survivors," said Harold Denuren, Nigeria's director of aviation.

Authorities said that in addition to the passengers and crew aboard the plane, an unknown number of people may also have been killed or hurt on the ground. President Goodluck Jonathan canceled all appointments for Monday and declared three days of official mourning for the victims.

The plane was heading from Abuja, the capital, to Lagos when it went down about 3:30 p.m. local time (10:30 a.m. ET), authorities said. It crashed into a building and broke into two before burning up, witnesses said.

Local reports indicated that at least three buildings were severely damaged, one of them a church. Nigerian Eye reported from the scene that bodies could be seen burning on the ground, while pictures on the Internet showed large plumes of smoke across the city.

Police said they had recovered the plane's voice recorder. Al Jazeera reported from Abuja that witnesses said the the plane may have hit a power line in clear and sunny weather.

Razak Fadipe, acting head of the Lagos fire service, told The Daily Times of Nigeria that no one had been rescued alive as of 7:30 p.m. (2:30 p.m. ET) but that people were likely to be trapped in the one of the buildings.

Poor road access and a crowd of hundreds of people were complicating rescue efforts, in some cases blocking fire crews from reaching the scene.

"Our job is crucial to the rescue efforts," Fadipe said. "Without us doing our job, other rescue teams cannot gain access to even rescue any survivors that may be trapped in the building."

The Daily Times quoted a senior official of Dana Airlines, whom it didn't identify, as saying the plane had been undergoing repairs for several weeks.

"The station manager protested its use, but the Indian management insisted it should fly," the official said, according to The Daily Times.

The crash came after 10 other people were killed when a Boeing 727 cargo plane flying from Lagos crashed Saturday in Accra, the capital of Ghana, and hit a bus, the Sunday Tribune of Nigeria reported.

The crew of four survived, authorities said.

A senior military officer told the Sunday Tribune that the bus was severely damaged, while the plane's wings and tail broke off from its body.

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