SHORT HISTORY OF THE ETHIOPIAN CATHOLIC CHURCH

THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IN THE WORLD

The Catholic Church was founded by Jesus Christ two thousand years ago. Jesus entrusted his Church to his Twelve Apostles, the first bishops, who spread the Christian faith throughout the known world. The word "catholic" means "universal." Indeed, today the Catholic Church is present everywhere in the world: there are over one billion Catholic Christians, making it one of the globe's largest religions.

The leader and guarantor of unity of the original Twelve Apostles was the Apostle Peter who became bishop of Rome and was martyred there. Peter's 265th successor as Bishop of Rome and head of the Catholic Church is the current Pope, Benedict XVI, who has started serving as Pope since the 19^th of April 2005.

While faithful to its own doctrinal and moral teachings, the Catholic Church believes in the freedom of conscience and of religion. Thus, the Church is committed to dialogue and cooperation with other Christian and non-Christian religions, with all men and women of goodwill.

The Church is an institution, which is at the same time both divine and human and uses human instruments and structures to survive in the world; it never finds once for all a formula for dealing with earthly powers.

The Catholic Church has been present in Africa since its inception almost two thousand years ago. According to Biblical tradition, Jesus himself spent three years of his childhood on the African Continent, in Egypt. Since then, over two millennia, countless generations of African Catholic bishops and priests, religious sisters and brothers, faithful men, women and children, have worshipped and prayed, have taught and passed on their faith-yes, at times have even died for their faith. The Catholic Church in Africa has given the world early Popes like Saint Victor, great theologians like the Fourth Century Saint Augustine of North Africa, courageous martyrs like Ugandan Saint Charles Lwanga and his companions, Blessed Gebre Michael in Ethiopia and modem witnesses like Saint Josephine Bakhita of Sudan.

SHORT HISTORY OF THE ETHIOPIAN CATHOLIC CHURCH

The Catholic Church has been present in Ethiopia from the beginning of Christianity. The Bible's Acts of the Apostles tells how one of the first converts to Christianity was an Ethiopian, baptized by the Apostle St. Philip (Acts 8:26-40).

However, due to some problems such as shortage of priests, distant location of the country from the Holy see, the closure of the main means of communication with the Christian world by non Christians, and especially the hindrances by a local church privileged by the Government until recent years, the expansion of the Catholic Church in Ethiopia was slow.

Around the year 341 A.D., Saint Frumentius (Abune Salama Kesatie Berhan) was consecrated the first Bishop of Ethiopia by the great Saint Athanasius,Patriarch of Alexandria, who was in union with the Bishop of Rome. Thus the Bishop of Alexandria was the bridge between the Bishop of Rome and the Bishop of Ethiopia.

When the Church in Alexandria and in Ethiopia split from the Church in Rome in the sixth century due to an unfortunate Christological misunderstanding, the Church which had been one became divided.

Between the 13th_18th centuries, various consistent missionary attempts had been carried out in Ethiopia to re-introduce Catholicism. Since there was already a Christian church in the Country, Most of the missionary attempts were not concerned with the conversion of the non-Christians, but securing the adhesion to the Holy See of the existing Church. Yet these missions eventually failed due to the national-religious attachment of the Ethiopians, in particular, the Coptic party, to their Monophysite doctrine, and the strict link between religious and political struggles.

It was since 1839 that Msgr. Giustino De Jacobies, and later on in 1846, that Cardinal Massaja restarted the Catholic missionaries activities, which were interrupted by the I persecution that broke out against the catholic mission in the 17th century. The Catholic Christians presently found in Ethiopia are mostly the fruit of the vigorous apostolate of the above-mentioned two great missionaries: St. Giustino De Jacobis, and Cardinal Guglielmo Massaja.

The Italian invasion of Ethiopia in 1935 gave rise to some historical misunderstandings, in the polemical context of war, regarding the role of Catholics during the conflict. In truth, the  Catholic Church, including the Holy See (the Vatican), did not sanction the war. Indeed, Pope Pius XI vigorously condemned Italian Fascism and its aims in his Encyclical Letter Non Abbiamo Bisogno, which was released in 1931, well before the Italian invasion of Ethiopia. Certainly, Italian priests came to offer spiritual assistance to Italians, and some stayed. The many educational, social and healthcare institutions they founded served and continue to serve Ethiopians of all religions and ethnic groups.

In the 1940s, Emperor Haile Selassie invited Jesuit priests to found the University College, which became Haile Selassie University (now Addis Ababa University), the first university in Ethiopia.

The Ethiopian Catholic Church is especially close to the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, whose doctrine and liturgical tradition she shares. While separated by their understanding of the primacy of the Bishop of Rome, the Ethiopian Catholic and Orthodox Churches have basically the same sacraments, the same prayers, the same devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary and the angels and the saints, the same traditions: the same faith. For this reason, the Ethiopian Catholic Church does not proselytize Ethiopian Orthodox Christians, but strives for brotherly cooperation. Indeed, Ethiopian Catholics pray and work in hope for the day that the Ethiopian Catholic and Orthodox Churches will unite in full communion.

The Ethiopian Catholic Church is also close to her Protestant Christian brothers and sisters who share one another's faith in Jesus Christ, love for the Bible, new life through baptism, and devotion to personal prayer.

In its relationships with all religions, the Catholic Church stresses what unites, not what divides, and seeks to grow in understanding and cooperation with everyone. For more information about Catholic beliefs and practices, consult the reference book entitled The Catechism of the Catholic Church, available at the Ethiopian Catholic Secretariat.

Today Catholic and Orthodox Church leaders acknowledge that no serious theological controversy separates the Ethiopian Catholic and Orthodox Churches. Indeed, they use the same Profession of Faith, the Niceo-Constatinopolitan Creed. Again, they are separated only by their understanding of the primacy of the Bishop of Rome, and continue to pray and work for full unity.

The Ethiopian Catholic Church has two great liturgical traditions: from Addis Ababa northward, the sacred liturgy is celebrated in the Ge'ez Rite, just as in the Ethiopian Orthodox Church; from Addis Ababa southward, the sacred liturgy is celebrated according to the Latin Rite, that is, a different style of liturgy which uses the  local languages.

The Catholic Church in Ethiopia, as in the rest of the world, is divided into territorial divisions headed by a bishop. Each bishop is entrusted with the religious and social care of the people in his territory, assisted by many priests, sisters, religious brothers and lay leaders. The coordination of all religious and social activities is done by the bishop's local Catholic Secretariat.

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BISHOPS OF
 

Rt. Rev. Msgr. Lorenzo Ceresoli, MCCJ

Vicar Apostolic of Awasa
P.O.Box 12, Awasa
Tel:  00.251.06.20.23.50
        00.251.06.20.23.49
        00.251.06.20.23.98
Fax:  00.251.06.20.23.48
E-mail: awcs@ethionet.et
 

Rt. Rev. Msgr. Leonardus Dobbelaar, CM

Vicar Apostolic of Nekemte
P.O.Box 14, Nekemte
Tel:   00.251.07.61.13.58
         00.251.07.61.16.26
                        (Nekemte)

Tel:   00.251.01.79.24.27
         00.251.01.79.58.77
                  (Addis Ababa)
Fax:  00.251.1.79.26.59
E-mail: ncs@ethionet.et
 

Rt. Rev. Msgr. Tesfaselassie Medhin

Eparch of  Adigrat
P.O.Box 8, Adigrat
Tel:  00.251.03.45.2138
Fax:  00.251.04.45.26.30
E-mail: ceparad@ethionet.et