Ethiopian Catholic Church

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Ethiopian Catholic Church
Basic data
Jurisdiction status Metropolitan Church
rite Alexandrian / Ethiopian
Liturgical language Old Ethiopian
calendar Gregorian calendar (main festivals partly according to the Julian calendar )
Establishment date 1846
Seat Addis Ababa
Hierarch Metropolitan and Archeparch of Addis-Ababa Berhaneyesus Demerew Souraphiel CM
statistics
Jurisdictions 4th
Believers 72,000
Bishops 4th
Parishes 75
Diocesan priest 113
Religious priest 146
Permanent deacons 1
Friars 281
Religious sisters 407
Status: 2015
Template: Infobox rite church / maintenance / picture is missing

The Ethiopian Catholic Church ( Amharic የኢትዮጵያ ካቶሊካዊት ቤተ ክርስቲያን ሊቀ ጳጳሳት ) is an Eastern Catholic Church united with the Church and Pope of Rome with the Ethiopian rite as the liturgical order. It is to be distinguished from its Ethiopian Orthodox mother church as well as from the Catholic Church of the Roman Rite in Ethiopia .

history

After the arrival of the Portuguese ambassador Pêro da Covilhã at the Ethiopian court in 1493 , but especially after the arrival of the Portuguese missionary Francisco Álvares in 1520 and the letter from the Ethiopian Emperor David II to Pope Clement VII , which Álvares brought to Rome from Ethiopia in 1526, it existed a relationship between Ethiopian and Catholic Christianity.

After a Portuguese military expedition from Portuguese India under Vasco da Gama's son Cristóvão da Gama came to the aid of the Ethiopian Empire under Claudius in 1541 against the Arab conqueror Mohammed Gran and brought modern technology (weapons, handicrafts, engineering) with him, the Portuguese influence at the Ethiopian court grew . The first Catholic parishes of the Portuguese emerged in Ethiopia, from 1543 in Fasil Ghebbi , where they greatly expanded the fortress there. From 1555 the Jesuits came to Ethiopia, initially only as religious advisers for the Portuguese there.

Immediately after the "Mohammedan storm" of the Sultanate of Adal , the Jesuits began in 1557 with the Catholic missionary work in Ethiopia . Emperor Claudius rejected them, but in 1603 they succeeded in persuading Emperor Asnaf Sagad II to convert. Sissinios initially even agreed to a church union with Rome (as was the case with Emperor Constantine I in 1450 ), but then revoked it in 1630 because he feared the discontent of his subjects. Nevertheless, he was overthrown and killed in 1632, his successor Fasilides (1632–1667) drove out the Jesuits or had them executed, as well as Muslim missionaries. The country returned to Orthodox Christianity with Coptic characteristics. Efforts towards partial union began in the first half of the 19th century. They run parallel to the establishment of a church of Latin tradition in the same region, especially in Eritrea and the non-Christianized areas in the south of the Ethiopian state.

Justinus de Jacobis , from 1839 Apostolic Prefect of the Roman Pope for Ethiopia with jurisdiction over the Latin Catholics, also liked to celebrate worship according to the Ethiopian rite and gained respect and followers among priests and believers of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church.

In 1930, in Eritrea, which had been occupied by Italians since 1894, in addition to the existing Latin jurisdiction, which mainly looked after Italians, an ordinariate for the growing number of native Catholics of the Ethiopian rite was established. With the occupation of Ethiopia by Italy in 1936 , Latin jurisdictions were expanded. After Ethiopia regained its independence, the foreign missionaries were expelled; the local Catholic clergy of the Ethiopian rite had increased responsibility.

In 1951, the Addis Ababa Apostolic Exarchate of the Ethiopian Catholic Church was established and the Ordinariate for Eritrea was elevated to an exarchate. On April 9, 1961 the metropolitan (ecclesiastical province) of Ethiopia was founded with Addis Ababa as the seat of the metropolitan and Asmara (Eritrea) and Adigrat as suffragan bishops.

After Eritrea's independence, two new eparchies (dioceses), Barentu and Keren , were established here in 1995 and the Latin Apostolic Vicariate was abolished. In Eritrea all Catholics, including the Roman Catholic tradition, are subject to an Eastern Church hierarchy. In 2003 a new eparchy was created in Emdeber (Ethiopia) and in 2012 the eparchy Segheneity (Eritrea), so that the Ethiopian-Catholic metropolitan area comprised seven bishoprics, three in Ethiopia and four in Eritrea. These seven dioceses formed the transnational church province of Addis Ababa until 2015 . On January 19, 2015, Pope Francis divided the ecclesiastical province and subordinated the eparchies Asmara, Barentu, Keren and Segheneity in Eritrea to the ecclesiastical province of Eritrea . This forms the newly founded Eritrean Catholic Church .

Roman Catholic (missionary) jurisdictions continue to exist in southern Ethiopia: six Apostolic Vicariats with titular bishops ( Awasa , Harar , Meki , Nekemte , Hosanna and Soddo ) and two Apostolic Prefectures under the direction of a priest ( Gambella and Jimma-Bonga ). The Apostolic Prefectures Gambella and Jimma-Bonga were elevated to Apostolic Vicariates on December 5, 2009, headed by a titular bishop. The Apostolic Vicariate Soddo-Hosanna was divided on January 10, 2010 and the Apostolic Vicariate Soddo was established.

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Ethiopian Catholic Church. Pro Oriente , accessed February 9, 2015 .
  2. ^ The Eastern Catholic Churches 2013. Catholic Near East Welfare Association, accessed January 21, 2015 .
  3. ↑ erezione della Chiesa Metropolitana sui iuris eritrea e nomina del primo Metropolita. In: Daily Bulletin. Holy See Press Office , January 19, 2015, accessed January 19, 2015 (Italian).

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