ETHIOPIA: Catholic Church Deliberating With Partners On Her Role As Instrument of Peace
The Ethiopian Catholic Church Partners Annual Coordination Meeting has taken place in Addis Ababa on September 23 and 24, 2019 under the theme “Contribution of the Catholic Church in Addressing conflict in view of a peaceful coexistence in Ethiopia.”
On the occasion His Eminence Cardinal Berhaneyesus, C.M., Metropolitan Archbishop of Addis Ababa and President of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Ethiopia said that the Catholic Church is praying for peace and working to be an instrument of peace.
“True peace comes from God. We have to ask God for the gift of peace and desire it in our hearts. That is how we can prepare ourselves to be instruments of peace because we can only give to others what we have. The Catholic Church along with other religious institutions is praying and striving for peace. We work for sustainable peace by addressing the root causes of conflict, with an objective to maximize the potentials, the experiences and the social teachings of the Catholic Church in peace building ministry which is part of the evangelization mission of the Church. Eventually, we must develop a common strategy and identify concrete actions to be taken in a very coordinated way,” said Cardinal Berhaneyesus”.
The Cardinal added that it is important to remember the real culture of Ethiopia which is hospitality and not hostility. He said the recent violent incidents do not describe Ethiopia. He recalled that for centuries Ethiopians have been living together in peace and harmony, embracing their neighbours. His Eminence has stressed that the Catholic Church together with her partners must work on capitalizing on this tradition.
Rev. Fr. Teshome Fikre Secretary General of the Ethiopian Catholic Secretariat, in his opening speech, also said that the Catholic Church in Her efforts to address peace issues focuses on tackling the root causes of conflict and that the Catholic Church focuses on resolving conflicts and building conditions for lasting peace by promotion and protection of human rights and advancing integral human development.
He further said the Catholic Church recognizes that among many other factors causative toconflict, poverty is one of them so much that addressing this is a step towards achieving sustainable peace. All grassroots development action the Church is involved in contributes greatly to peaceful coexistence, hence the need to strengthen these interventions. He invited all Catholic Dioceses and partners to work together to respond to the call made by the Ethiopian society to the Catholic Church to be an instrument of peace.
In the presentations made by various resource persons from different Universities and institutions the role and the potential of the Catholic Church in addressing the root causes of conflicts was also recognized. The presenters asked the Catholic Church to continue to playing the role of being an instrument of peace.
Partners of the Ethiopian Catholic Church from different parts of the world and in Ethiopia joined the meeting.
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By Makeda Yohannes
