Kutwa was born on 22 December 1945 in Blockhauss (Abidjan). He had initial studies the school St Jean-Bosco, Treichville, in 1950; on 18 September 1955, he entered the "Petit-Clerc", Bingerville in class of CMI; in 1957, he entered the Minor Seminary in Bingerville, where he completed his secondary studies. Kutwa is also a composer.[1]
Education
On 2 October 1964, he entered the Grand Seminary of Anyama, where he studied philosophy and theology; on 22 December 1967, he received the cassock and the ecclesiastical tonsure; he received the diaconate on 20 December 1970, from Archbishop Bernard Yago of Abidjan, in the church of Notre Dame du Perpétuel Secours in Treichville; also, he studied at the Catholic Institute of Occidental Africa (I.C.A.O.), where he obtained a maîtrise in Biblical theology; and at the Pontifical Urbaniana University, Rome, where he earned a doctorate in Biblical theology.
He took part in the Synod of Bishops that met at the Vatican in October 2005 as a delegate of the bishops of the Ivory Coast.[1]
In May 2006, Pope Benedict XVI transferred him to the metropolitan see of Abidjan to succeed the retiring Cardinal Agré.
Following the violence in the Ivory Coast that followed the November 2010 elections and ended in April 2011, he called for reconciliation: "Yes, the Ivory Coast must be a land of friendship and brotherhood, from the North or from the South, black or white, from here or elsewhere."[2] In January 2012, speaking on behalf of the National Forum of Religious Groups, he called for Alassane Ouattara, President of the Ivory Coast and a Muslim, to release political prisoners, supporters of his defeated rival for the presidency, in order to facilitate the process of national reconciliation.[3]
On 12 January 2014, Pope Francis announced that he would name Kutwa a cardinal at the papal consistory scheduled for 22 February 2014, along with 18 others.[4] He was created Cardinal-Priest of Santa Emerenziana a Tor Fiorenza in February 2014.