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| Fr. HaileGabriel Meleku |
The Ethiopian Catholic Bishops’ Conference is celebrating the Golden Jubilee Year which was officially inaugurated on the 26th April 2014 by Eucharistic celebrations presided over by the president of the Bishops’ conference, Most Rev. Berhaneyesus D. Souraphiel, Archbishop of Addis Ababa.
Speaking to AMECEA Online News in Dar-es-salaam, the National Pastoral Coordinator Fr. HaileGabriel Meleku, OFM Cap. said that the decision to have a one year jubilee celebrations was made in December 2013, during the 33rdPlenary Assembly of the Bishops Conference of Ethiopia.
“The Episcopal Conference of Ethiopia was established in May 1964, exactly from May 11th to 16th 1964,” said Fr. Gabriel.
A committee chaired by the Rt. Rev. Tsegaye Keneni, Apostolic Vicar of Soddo was established by the conference to oversee the celebrations which are already underway in all dioceses.
A symposium has been organized to take place from 3rd-5thDecember.“We consider it a very important event, where the conference intends to showcase presentations on eleven papers concerning various issues such as formation of agents of evangelization; the role of Catholic schools as well as exhibiting history of the conference,” Fr. Gabriel explained.
“The presentations at the symposium will give us opportunity to evaluate the history of the Bishops’ conference as well as the role of Bishops’ conference; the life of the Catholic Church in Ethiopia as well as assessing the pastoral letters of the Bishops and revisiting the guidelines on education, health and other integral developments in the past 50 years,” he added.
After the symposium the conference plans to publish a handbook of the proceedings which will be launched at the end of the Jubilee celebrations and be made available for all.The climax of the Golden Jubilee celebrations will be held on 26thJuly 2015.
“50 years of the Bishops’ conference means a blessing for the country; at the beginning, there were only six Bishop, but currently we have 13 bishops, in a country where Catholic Population is only 1%,” Fr. Gabriel said adding that “The number of dioceses have also grown.”
According to Fr. Gabriel, the activities of the Catholic Church in Ethiopia are numerous and benefiting all Ethiopian regardless of religion or denomination.
Source: Pamela Adinda, AMECEA Social Communications
