Christianity in Eritrea - Catholicism in Eritrea and Ethiopia

Catholicism in Eritrea and Ethiopia

The Portuguese voyages of discovery at the end of the fifteenth century opened the way for direct contacts between the Catholic Church and the Ethiopian Orthodox Church. Due largely to the behaviour of the Portuguese Afonso Mendes whom Pope Urban VIII appointed as Patriarch of Ethiopia in 1622 and who was expelled from the country in 1636, these contacts, which had seemed destined for success, led instead to the complete closure of Ethiopia to further contact with Rome.

In 1839, Saint Justin de Jacobis arrived in the country as Prefect Apostolic of Ethiopia, in charge therefore of a Latin-rite jurisdiction. He preferred instead to use the Ethiopic liturgical rite. Many Ethiopian priests were attracted to his sanctity and his teaching, thus giving rise to what became in 1930 the Ethiopic Catholic Church, when, in view of its continual growth, an ordinariate for the Ethiopic Rite faithful of Eritrea, entrusted to an Eritrean bishop, was established. Eritrea, an Italian possession since 1894, already had a separate ecclesiastical jurisdiction, headed by an Italian titular bishop, for Latin-rite Catholics, mainly Italians.

The Latin Rite had become established in the south of Ethiopia in areas that had not been Christian and that were incorporated into the modern country only at the end of the nineteenth century. The Italian occupation of Ethiopia in 1936 gave rise to an increase in the number of Latin Rite jurisdictions, but the expulsion of foreign missionaries at the end of the Second World War meant that the Ethiopic Rite clergy had to take responsibility for larger areas than before. Accordingly, in 1951, the Ethiopic Rite Apostolic Exarchate of Addis Ababa was established, and the ordinariate for Eritrea was elevated to the rank of exarchate. Ten years later, on 9 April 1961, an Ethiopic metropolia (ecclesiastical province) was established, with Addis Ababa as the metropolitan see and Asmara (in Eritrea) and Adigrat (in Ethiopia) as suffragan eparchies.

In 1995, two new eparchies, Barentu and Keren, were established in Eritrea, and the Latin Rite apostolic vicariate was abolished. Eritrea thus became the only country where all Catholics, whatever their personal liturgical rite, belong to an Eastern Catholic jurisdiction. In 2003, one more eparchy was created in Endibir in the Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples' Region of Ethiopia, and on Friday, February 24, 2012, according to the list of Pontifical Acts on News.va on the Vatican web site, Pope Benedict XVI erected the new Eparchy of Segheneity in Eritrea (area 29,499, population 850,000, Catholics 35,557, priests 52, religious 70), with territory taken from the Eparchy of Asmara. He appointed Father Fikremariam Hagos Tsalim, until now the Vicar General of the Eparchy of Asmara, as the first Bishop (Eparch) of the new Diocese (Eparchy). The Bishop-elect was born in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia in 1970 and ordained a priest in 1996. He studied in Rome, Italy, and has been active in pastoral work in and around Asmara. The Ethiopic Catholic Metropolitan Church now consists of seven sees, three in Ethiopia and four in Eritrea. There are also Latin-Rite jurisdictions in the south of Ethiopia, none of them raised to the rank of diocese. Eight are apostolic vicariates, headed by a titular bishop; one is an apostolic prefecture, headed by a priest.

Ge'ez, a Semitic language fallen out of daily use several centuries ago, is the liturgical language of the Ethiopic Church, whose liturgy is based on the Coptic.