Ethiopia is one of the earliest cradles of Christianity, the second nation after Armenia to adopt Christianity as a state religion. But Catholics have struggled here ever since seismic events in the early 17th century crushed their burgeoning religion in this most religious land.
Eventually Catholics made a small comeback, but nowadays devotees of the Ethiopian Catholic Church – an Eastern Church in communion with the Church of Rome – constitute only one per cent of Ethiopia’s 95 million-plus population.
About 45 per cent of the population belong to the Ethiopian Tewahedo Orthodox Church, the principal faith since the 4th century. Muslims make up around 35 per cent. This figure is much argued over in the sensitive realm of country and religion: Muslims say it’s more, non-Muslims say it isn’t – with Protestants and adherents to indigenous tribal religions making up the rest.
“There’s still a lot of distrust of the Catholic Church due to its history in the country,” says an Ethiopian Catholic priest who didn’t wish to be named due to potential repercussions for his parish work. “It’s viewed as having caused the persecution of the Orthodox Church, after which Ethiopians said: Never again!”
In the 16th century, Portuguese merchants went in search of the legendary land of the Christian king, Prester John – said to be a descendant of one of the Three Magi – whose realm was associated with Ethiopia in the eyes of pre-modern Europe. Portuguese Jesuits accompanied them, eager to win Ethiopia for Rome. They were successful, up to a point.
By 1622, the Ethiopian King Susenyos had embraced Catholicism and by 1626 had established it as the state religion. But misguided Latinising reforms of the Ethiopian liturgy pushed through by the zealous Jesuits, coupled with the king’s outlawing of the Orthodox Church and his bloody measures to convert his people to Catholicism, resulted in a five-year civil war.
Had Susenyos won, Ethiopia would likely be Catholic today. But, increasingly isolated from his subjects, Susenyos was forced to abdicate, in effect restoring Orthodoxy.
In the aftermath hundreds of Catholic missionaries were expelled or put to death. Europeans were forbidden from entering this “African Zion” for 200 years. Some argue that this decision played the most significant role in preserving Ethiopia’s independence during Europe’s empire-building land-grab centuries later.
By the 19th century another Catholic effort was made to evangelise the Ethiopian kingdom, focusing on the northern provinces of Eritrea – now an independent country – and Tigray. The resulting growth of this Eastern Catholic community coincided with the colonisation of Eritrea by the Italians in the mid 19th century. Nowadays the vast majority of Ethiopia’s Catholics live in remote villages. After the 200-year ban was lifted, Catholics were restricted to inaccessible rural areas.
“Many Orthodox priests still think of the events of the 16th century, so we are trying to create an awareness of the contemporary special needs that exist between our sister churches,” says Argaw Fantu, regional director of Catholic Near East Welfare Association (CNEWA). To this end, CNEWA provides support to strengthen the resource-poor Orthodox Church, helping to fund the education and formation of Orthodox clergy and laity throughout the vast country.
Despite ongoing tensions in Ethiopia about the Catholic Church posing a “risk” with its “agents of the Pope”, it garners respect owing to its disproportionately influential role in the lives of many Ethiopians through its schools, clinics and other social service institutions. After the government it is the country’s biggest provider of schools.
There are other areas of common ground. The Ethiopian Catholic Church adheres to the same traditional rites and liturgical language, known as Ge’ez, as its Orthodox counterpart. This includes many colourful flourishes such as umbrellas unveiled at Communion; elaborate, stylised lattice-work crosses (the intertwined lattice represents everlasting life); and double-headed conical kebero hand drums, sistrums and ululating accompanying worship swathed in endless amounts of incense wafting from swinging thuribles.
Furthermore, both the Ethiopian Orthodox and Catholics are losing ground to successful proselytising efforts by Evangelical Christians scattered throughout Ethiopia. The Orthodox Church is losing more people, but the tiny Ethiopian Catholic Church can hardly afford any defections. In an effort to counter this, it is educating its faithful about the need for evangelisation in Catholicism, as encouraged by Pope Francis.
‘The Catholic Church belongs to you. It’s your Church. You make it what you want it to be,” proclaims Lloyd Greenhaw, a burly white-bearded Texan with a rich baritone, pointing his big finger at a hall of young Ethiopian students. “You can do away with the division and scandal in the Church.”
The students are in the city of Bahir Dar, located about 250 miles north-west of the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, and famed for Lake Tana and its island monasteries. They are there for a weekend catechetical programme, albeit one with evangelical fervour, organised by the Catholic Eparchy of Bahir Dar-Dessie.
Abune Lesanu-Christos Matheos, the local Catholic bishop, says: “When people, especially the young, discover religion, it’s an emotional reaction and they want more. And if they don’t get it, they will look elsewhere – to other churches.”
The bishop understands well the challenges facing Catholics and the Orthodox today. Before his ordination as a bishop, he served as a chaplain in Addis Ababa, a sprawling urban centre that draws young men and women from throughout the largely rural and poor country.
Although religion has been a dominant force in Ethiopia for 16 centuries, in recent times Ethiopian culture has experienced tensions between conservative and rural religious values and the aspiration to be zemenawi – “modern” in Amharic. There is a deep-seated belief in the value of modernisation, held particularly by Ethiopia’s rulers. This has often fostered suspicion towards traditional institutions such as churches and mosques. Both Christians and Muslims have suffered at the hands of Ethiopia’s various contemporary rulers.
Despite so much previous religious turmoil, however, nowadays the country offers a success story of Christians and Muslims living together in harmony.
Intermarriage is common, while both sides recognise and celebrate each other’s religious holidays. But that doesn’t negate pressures and competition on a larger scale. Christian Religious speak of Islam exerting pressure – bolstered by Saudi funding – while Ethiopia’s Christian community suffers growing internal divisions.
Cardinal Berhaneyesus Souraphiel of Addis Ababa says: “Muslims are promising a better life to people. They sponsor a whole family, and provide a car and shop, as long as you become Muslim.
“Meanwhile, Pentecostal churches are attracting youth, providing an emotional outlet for those who are sick or unemployed. They give hope and desire, even the possibility to go abroad and escape poverty.”
In early 2016, Pope Francis met the Ethiopian Orthodox Patriarch Abune Mathias in an expression of ecumenical solidarity in the face of shared challenges. But a long cultural memory sometimes hampers efforts to promote unity.
“After priests came to visit us, a few Orthodox fanatics started throwing stones at the building where we met,” says Abunet Temesgen, a 21-year-old attending the Bahir Dar programme. When local police said they could not guarantee their safety, the Catholic students stopped meeting at the building. “Now we just talk on the phone, we don’t meet. There’s nowhere to go.”
Given the pressures the Ethiopian Catholic Church faces, including its lack of priests and churches, some emphasise the need for the laity to assist clergy in helping to guide the likes of Abunet and his fellow young Catholics, who often have no parish priest or church to turn to.
“The Church laity is a sleeping giant,” says Joseph Alumansi, a Ugandan Catholic assisting during the students’ weekend programme. “The sleeping giant in Ethiopia needs to rise up and become evangelisers.”
James Jeffrey is a freelance journalist based in Addis Ababa, from where he covers Ethiopia and the Horn of Africa for various international media
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