www.byzcath.org Forums General Discussions Town Hall Capuchin to Lead New Eparchy in Ethiopia

Shlomo Lkhoolkhoon,
Here is some joyous news.

Poosh BaShlomo Lkhoolkhoon,
Yuhannon

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ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia, NOV. 25, 2003 (Zenit.org).- John Paul II established the Eparchy of Emdeber in Ethiopia and named Franciscan Capuchin Father Musie Gebreghiorghis as its first bishop.

The eparchy is suffragan to the Metropolitan Archeparchy of Addis Ababa.

Father Gebreghiorghis is currently rector of the Capuchin priests' Philosophical and Theological Institute in Addis Ababa, a key institution for all the ecclesiastical circumscriptions of southern Ethiopia, according to a statement issued by the Vatican press office today.

Musie Gebreghiorghis was born in Eritrea on July 26, 1949. He entered the Order of Capuchin Friars in 1962, and made his perpetual vows in 1974. He was ordained a priest two years later. He studied Franciscan spirituality in Ireland.

The Emdeber Eparchy numbers 18,400 faithful in 14 parishes served by 16 secular priests, six religious priests, and 12 women religious.
ZE03112502

Can you tell us please about the Catholic Church in Eritrea-Ethiopia, is this Eparchy and Metropolia from the Eastern or the Latin Rite?

Is it true that Latins over there are under the Ghe'ez Catholic hierarchy?

Shlomo Mexican,
Here is a list of the Ethiopian Eparchies

Addis Abeba (Archeparchy),
Adigrat (Eparchy),
Asmara(Eparchy) (Eritrea),
Barentu (Eparchy) (Eritrea),
Emdeber (Eparchy),
Keren (Eparchy) (Eritrea),

Vicariates: Awasa, Harar, Meki, Nekemte, Soddo-Hosanna

Prefectures: Gambella, Jimma-Bonga

Poosh BaShlomo,
Yuhannon

Mexican,

Ok, here's the basic rundown:

The Ethiopian Catholic Church (a/k/a the Ge'ez Catholic Church, a/k/a Abyssinian Catholic Church - obsolete usage) is a Metropolitan Arch-Eparchial Church sui iuris. The current presiding hierarch is His Excellency Berhane-Yesus Demerew Souraphiel, C.M., Metropolitan Archbishop of Addis Ababa (Ethiopia) for the Ethiopian Catholics.

The Ethiopian Catholics follow the Alexandrean Rite, Ge'ez Tradition, and serve the Liturgy of Saint Mark, employing Ge'ez, Amharic, and Arabic as liturgical languages. The Oriental Catholic faithful of Eritrea are incorporated into the Ethiopian Church.

The Church serves approximately 206,000 faithful between the two countries. It is organized under the Metropolitan Arch-Eparchy and five Eparchies, including the newly erected one. Three of the five Eparchies are situated in Eritrea and serve approximately 136,000 faithful.

The history of the Ethiopian Church offers some of the most blatant examples of latinization, albeit not by force; there's a brief description of it at the CNEWA [cnewa.org] site and a more in-depth review at The Kidane-Mehret website [catholic-forum.com] .

Presently, there are no canonical jurisdictions erected in the diaspora; thus, faithful of the Church are canonically subject to their local Ordinary. The sole parish in the US, Kidane-Mehret, was established almost 20 years ago; it's located in the Archdiocese of Washington (DC), where it shares space with St. Vincent De Paul Church. It has a website at Kidane-Mehret [catholic-forum.com] .

The Church's hierarchical structure was established in 1961, with the elevation of: Addis Abeba to metropolitan archeparchial status; Asmara to eparchial status; and, Adigrat to diocesan status. And, there begins the real answer to your question.

Ethiopia is a truly unique entity as the sole diocesan-level Latin See (the Diocese of Adrigat)is indeed suffragn to the Ethiopian Catholic Metropolitan Archeparchy of Addis Abeba. There are seven other Latin jurisdictions, five Vicariates Apostolic and two Prefectures Apostolic; those are, by their nature, subject to the Holy See. (I believe that supervision of vicariates and prefectures apostolic presently rests with Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples - the former Propaganda Fides.)

If you consult Catholic-Hierarchy.Org [catholic-hierarchy.org] , usually a very accurate source of info, you'll find that several of the Ethiopian/Eritrean jurisdictions are incorrectly denoted as to whether they are Latin or Ethiopian. The breakdown I presented above categorizes them as reported by Annuario Pontificio.

If you are fortunate enough to read Italian, there is a report [vatican.va] on the Vatican website of Cardinal Daoud's visit to Ethiopia and Eritrea in July of this year.

Hope this answers some of what you wanted to know.

Many years,

Neil

Dear Friends,

I'm somewhat "tight" with our Ethiopian Orthodox and Catholic communities here.

Fr. Messale of the former was doing a Master's in theology at St Michael's University here when I met him and he's invited me to come and speak to his parish some time soon about the Eastern Catholic Churches.

The Ethiopian Orthodox are truly sensitive to the way the Portuguese treated them and their Church/saints' shrines, but Latinization does not seem (at least from what I've seen)to be the "bogeyman" that it is among Byzantine Catholics, for instance.

Fr. Messale has been welcoming to Ethiopians and Africans in general, Catholics, Orthodox and Protestants who are interested in their African Church patrimony.

When I visited his parish, he had received the gift of a large statue of the Immaculate Conception that he promptly placed in the Church near the altar. He is on excellent terms with RC and Ethiopican Catholics.

He once gave me a religious history paper he had written where he described the relation between Ethiopians and RC's.

I noticed that he completely left out the matter of the desecration of Ethiopian saints' shrines and other matters of enforced Latinization.

He said that he didn't want to offend anyone and that what is past is past.

Roman Catholic charitable organizations in Ethiopia do wonderful work as well.

In addition, both RC and Eastern Orthodox missions in Ethiopia seem to be very respectful of the religious and national culture and everyone seems to get along famously as a result.

Alex

BTW, Irish mentioned CNEWA. There is an article that I just read last night on the Church in Eritrea in their latest magazine. It may be found online here http://www.cnewa.org/cw29-6-pp06-13.htm

Byzantines, take down some notes. :p

Logos Teen

Dear Teen Logo,

There's Methodism in your madness, Big Guy!

Alex

The Capuchins have a long history of working in that area, even to have some canonized martyrs from the 1600-1700's. It isn't surprising that they continue to be active in Church politics to this day. Don

Dear Don:

Quote

. . .It isn't surprising that they continue to be active in Church politics to this day.

I beg your pardon?

AmdG

With their long history in that country, it isn't surprising that the Capuchin Order continues to play a special part in the leadership of the Ethiopian Catholic Church. Don

As should the Protestants and the RCs. I don't want you to leave anyone out.

Dear Diak,

Very good point!

The Anglicans are held in high esteem by the Ethiopians and other Oriental Orthodox (including the Assyrians).

Anglican missionaries brought education and the like to their countries, but did not try to "convert" them to Anglicanism, as the RC's tried to convert them etc.

One Assyrian priest who was trained by Anglican missionaries told me that when it came time for Church, he and his Assyrian friends were not asked to attend Anglican services - they were led to the nearest Assyrian Church!

The altar screen that was St Mark's Coptic parish's first screen was obtained from Anglican nuns here in Toronto during their sale.

Fr Marcos saw it and said he wanted it.

When told by the nuns there would be a price for it, he said "Of course, how much would you like?"

The nuns said simply that they ask to be remembered in the prayers of his parish . . .

The Anglicans actually set a standard and they need not take notes from anyone!

God bless,

Alex

I used to attend the Ethiopian liturgy from time to time when I lived near DC; it is quite beautiful and quite African. I never understood why so many American blacks became Muslim instead of Ethiopian Orthodox or Catholic. After all Ethiopian Christianity predated African Islam by several centuries. Perhaps it is because Ethiopian immigration to the US is a comparatively recent phenomenon [but isn't African immigration also recent?]
Anyway, while in DC I purchased a couple of pieces of Ethiopian art and the St George slaying the dragon is on my living room wall.
And by the way, Ethiopian cuisine is delicious, a spicy variety of lentils, grains and goat served with tej , a sweet honey wine.

Dear Daniel,

Yes, St George is the patron of Ethiopia and the Imperial Flag of Ethiopia used to display an Icon of St George.

For the longest time, we didn't know Ethiopia had portable icons - they tended to wrap them in elephant skin and bury them as votives under ground . . .

Something similar occurs in Georgia - they don't exhume the relics of Saints but keep them buried.

St Nina of Georgia kept the Robe of our Lord buried in the garden where she lived in a hut.

Miraculous Holy Oil would flow from the Robe from underneath the earth where it lay . . .

The Ethiopian Church is a colourful and richly vibrant Church that combines Christian, Judaic, some Muslim and pre-Christian traditions.

Alex