Ethiopian Catholic Church
Encyclopedia
The Ethiopian Catholic Church is a Metropolitan
sui iuris
Eastern particular Church
within the Catholic Church. Established in 1930, its membership includes inhabitants of Ethiopia
and Eritrea
.
Like the other Eastern Catholic Churches, the Ethiopian Catholic Church is in full communion
with the Holy See
. It holds the Christological doctrine of the Council of Chalcedon
and accepts the universal jurisdiction of the Pope
. These points distinguish it from the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church
and Eritrean Orthodox Tewahedo Church, the Oriental Orthodox
churches comprising most Christians in the two countries. Like the Ethiopian and Eritrean Orthodox, the Ethiopian Catholic Church follows the Ethiopic liturgical rite
.
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. Emperor Susenyos
had declared Catholicism to be the official religion of Ethiopia, but outrage and resistance from the Ethiopian Orthodox Church led him being ousted from the throne in favor of his son, Fasilides
in 1632. He reinstated the Ethopian Orthodox Church and expelled Catholicism from Ethiopia.
In 1839, Saint Justin de Jacobis
arrived in the country as Apostolic Prefect
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 much larger areas. 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, with the result that the Ethiopic Catholic Metropolitan Church now consists of six sees, three in Ethiopia and three in Eritrea.
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.
There are also Latin-Rite jurisdictions in the south of Ethiopia, none of them raised to the rank of diocese. Five are apostolic vicariates, headed by a titular bishop
; two are apostolic prefectures, headed by a priest
, with the rank of monsignor
.
, and the Catholic rejection of miaphysite theology (e.g., the formula attributed to St. Cyril). Also, the order of the diaconate is reserved for adult men in the Catholic church, whereas boys are commonly ordained in the Ethiopian Orthodox Church. Ethiopian Catholic clergy also tend to dress in the Roman cassock and collar, contrary to the Ethiopian Orthodox custom.
In Ethiopia:
In Eritrea:
As of the 2010 Annuario Pontificio, the Ethiopian Catholic Church is estimated to have 230,000 faithful, 7 bishops, 207 parishes, 196 diocesan priests, 391 religious-order priests, 1946 men and women religious, 3 deacons, and 344 seminarians.
Metropolitan bishop
In Christian churches with episcopal polity, the rank of metropolitan bishop, or simply metropolitan, pertains to the diocesan bishop or archbishop of a metropolis; that is, the chief city of a historical Roman province, ecclesiastical province, or regional capital.Before the establishment of...
sui iuris
Sui iuris
Sui iuris, commonly also spelled sui juris, is a Latin phrase that literally means “of one’s own laws”.-Secular law:In civil law the phrase sui juris indicates legal competence, the capacity to manage one’s own affairs...
Eastern particular Church
Particular Church
In Catholic canon law, a Particular Church is an ecclesial community headed by a bishop or someone recognised as the equivalent of a bishop.There are two kinds of particular Churches:# Local particular Churches ...
within the Catholic Church. Established in 1930, its membership includes inhabitants of Ethiopia
Ethiopia
Ethiopia , officially known as the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a country located in the Horn of Africa. It is the second-most populous nation in Africa, with over 82 million inhabitants, and the tenth-largest by area, occupying 1,100,000 km2...
and Eritrea
Eritrea
Eritrea , officially the State of Eritrea, is a country in the Horn of Africa. Eritrea derives it's name from the Greek word Erethria, meaning 'red land'. The capital is Asmara. It is bordered by Sudan in the west, Ethiopia in the south, and Djibouti in the southeast...
.
Like the other Eastern Catholic Churches, the Ethiopian Catholic Church is in full communion
Full communion
In Christian ecclesiology, full communion is a relationship between church organizations or groups that mutually recognize their sharing the essential doctrines....
with the Holy See
Holy See
The Holy See is the episcopal jurisdiction of the Catholic Church in Rome, in which its Bishop is commonly known as the Pope. It is the preeminent episcopal see of the Catholic Church, forming the central government of the Church. As such, diplomatically, and in other spheres the Holy See acts and...
. It holds the Christological doctrine of the Council of Chalcedon
Council of Chalcedon
The Council of Chalcedon was a church council held from 8 October to 1 November, 451 AD, at Chalcedon , on the Asian side of the Bosporus. The council marked a significant turning point in the Christological debates that led to the separation of the church of the Eastern Roman Empire in the 5th...
and accepts the universal jurisdiction of the Pope
Pope
The Pope is the Bishop of Rome, a position that makes him the leader of the worldwide Catholic Church . In the Catholic Church, the Pope is regarded as the successor of Saint Peter, the Apostle...
. These points distinguish it from the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church
Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church
The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church is the predominant Oriental Orthodox Christian church in Ethiopia. The Ethiopian Church was administratively part of the Coptic Orthodox Church until 1959, when it was granted its own Patriarch by Coptic Orthodox Pope of Alexandria and Patriarch of All...
and Eritrean Orthodox Tewahedo Church, the Oriental Orthodox
Oriental Orthodoxy
Oriental Orthodoxy is the faith of those Eastern Christian Churches that recognize only three ecumenical councils — the First Council of Nicaea, the First Council of Constantinople and the First Council of Ephesus. They rejected the dogmatic definitions of the Council of Chalcedon...
churches comprising most Christians in the two countries. Like the Ethiopian and Eritrean Orthodox, the Ethiopian Catholic Church follows the Ethiopic liturgical rite
Christian liturgy
A liturgy is a set form of ceremony or pattern of worship. Christian liturgy is a pattern for worship used by a Christian congregation or denomination on a regular basis....
.
History
The PortuguesePortugal
Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...
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
Pope Urban VIII
Pope Urban VIII , born Maffeo Barberini, was pope from 1623 to 1644. He was the last pope to expand the papal territory by force of arms, and was a prominent patron of the arts and reformer of Church missions...
appointed as Patriarch
Patriarch
Originally a patriarch was a man who exercised autocratic authority as a pater familias over an extended family. The system of such rule of families by senior males is called patriarchy. This is a Greek word, a compound of πατριά , "lineage, descent", esp...
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. Emperor Susenyos
Susenyos of Ethiopia
Susenyos was of Ethiopia...
had declared Catholicism to be the official religion of Ethiopia, but outrage and resistance from the Ethiopian Orthodox Church led him being ousted from the throne in favor of his son, Fasilides
Fasilides of Ethiopia
Fasilides was of Ethiopia, and a member of the Solomonic dynasty...
in 1632. He reinstated the Ethopian Orthodox Church and expelled Catholicism from Ethiopia.
In 1839, Saint Justin de Jacobis
Justin de Jacobis
Saint Justin de Jacobis was an Italian Lazarist missionary who became Vicar Apostolic of Abyssinia and titular Bishop of Nilopolis.-Biography:He was born at San Fele, Province of Potenza in southern Italy...
arrived in the country as Apostolic Prefect
Apostolic prefect
An apostolic prefect is a priest who heads what is known as an apostolic prefecture, a missionary area where the Catholic Church is not yet sufficiently developed to have it made a diocese....
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
Italian people
The Italian people are an ethnic group that share a common Italian culture, ancestry and speak the Italian language as a mother tongue. Within Italy, Italians are defined by citizenship, regardless of ancestry or country of residence , and are distinguished from people...
.
The Latin Rite had become established in the south of Ethiopia in areas that had not been Christian
Christian
A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament...
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 much larger areas. Accordingly, in 1951, the Ethiopic Rite Apostolic Exarchate of Addis Ababa
Addis Ababa
Addis Ababa is the capital city of Ethiopia...
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
Asmara
Asmara is the capital city and largest settlement in Eritrea, home to a population of around 579,000 people...
(in Eritrea) and Adigrat
Adigrat
Adigrat is a city in the Tigray Region of Ethiopia. Located in the Misraqawi Zone at longitude and latitude with an elevation of 2457 meters above sea level, below a high ridge to the west, Adigrat is the last important Ethiopian city south of the border with Eritrea, and is considered to be a...
(in Ethiopia) as suffragan eparchies.
In 1995, two new eparchies, Barentu
Barentu, Eritrea
Barentu is a town in south-western Eritrea, lying south of Agordat. It is mainly inhabited by the Nilotic Kunama people and Nara people. The Nara people leader Shekaray Agaba was the first to build the town umba arenku which it means the white water. It is located in the Gash-Barka Zone of...
and Keren
Keren, Eritrea
Keren is the second largest city in Eritrea. It is situated about 91 kilometers northwest of Asmara. The town serves as the capital of the Anseba region, and is home to the Bilen ethnic group.-History:...
, 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
Endibir
Emdibir is a town in southwestern Ethiopia. Located in the Gurage Zone of the Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples' Region, this town has a latitude and longitude of and an elevation between 2130 and 2164 meters above sea level...
in the Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples' Region of Ethiopia, with the result that the Ethiopic Catholic Metropolitan Church now consists of six sees, three in Ethiopia and three in Eritrea.
Ge'ez, a Semitic language
Semitic languages
The Semitic languages are a group of related languages whose living representatives are spoken by more than 270 million people across much of the Middle East, North Africa and the Horn of Africa...
fallen out of daily use several centuries ago, is the liturgical language of the Ethiopic Church, whose liturgy is based on the Coptic.
There are also Latin-Rite jurisdictions in the south of Ethiopia, none of them raised to the rank of diocese. Five are apostolic vicariates, headed by a titular bishop
Titular bishop
A titular bishop in various churches is a bishop who is not in charge of a diocese.By definition a bishop is an "overseer" of a community of the faithful, so when a priest is ordained a bishop the tradition of the Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches is that he be ordained for a specific place...
; two are apostolic prefectures, headed by a priest
Presbyter
Presbyter in the New Testament refers to a leader in local Christian congregations, then a synonym of episkopos...
, with the rank of monsignor
Monsignor
Monsignor, pl. monsignori, is the form of address for those members of the clergy of the Catholic Church holding certain ecclesiastical honorific titles. Monsignor is the apocopic form of the Italian monsignore, from the French mon seigneur, meaning "my lord"...
.
Differences between the Catholic and Orthodox Ethiopian Churches
In addition to the points mentioned above, other distinctions between the Orthodox and Catholic Ethiopian Churches include certain points of doctrine regarding the sacraments, the use of the Catholic canon of ScriptureBiblical canon
A biblical canon, or canon of scripture, is a list of books considered to be authoritative as scripture by a particular religious community. The term itself was first coined by Christians, but the idea is found in Jewish sources. The internal wording of the text can also be specified, for example...
, and the Catholic rejection of miaphysite theology (e.g., the formula attributed to St. Cyril). Also, the order of the diaconate is reserved for adult men in the Catholic church, whereas boys are commonly ordained in the Ethiopian Orthodox Church. Ethiopian Catholic clergy also tend to dress in the Roman cassock and collar, contrary to the Ethiopian Orthodox custom.
Structure
There are currently six eparchies:In Ethiopia:
- Metropolitan Archeparchy of Addis Ababa
- Eparchy of Adigrat
- Eparchy of Emdeber
In Eritrea:
- Eparchy of Asmara
- Eparchy of Barentu
- Eparchy of Keren
As of the 2010 Annuario Pontificio, the Ethiopian Catholic Church is estimated to have 230,000 faithful, 7 bishops, 207 parishes, 196 diocesan priests, 391 religious-order priests, 1946 men and women religious, 3 deacons, and 344 seminarians.
External links
- Article on The Ethiopian Catholic Church by Ronald Roberson on the CNEWA website.
- Catholic Church in Ethiopia official website