ETHIOPIA: Cardinal Appreciates Natural and Social Sciences Race After Medicine and Vaccine to Fight Against Covid-19

Habtamu Abrdew Beture

His Eminence Cardinal Berhaneyesus has issued a pastoral letter to the faithful and all people of good will on the current Covid-19 pandemic where, appreciating all efforts to fight the viral disease through scientific research to find medicine and vaccine to combat the diseases, he has stresses on keeping faith as key to overcoming despair.

“Health is in fact one of the crucial values for human beings. Giving priority to health is not luxury. In Ethiopian culture, wishing someone good health, Tena Yestelegn (May the Lord give you health on my behalf), is one way of greeting each other. Health is also the first thing people ask about when they meet. All other topics of conversation follow after they query about health. It is therefore not difficult to understand the big challenge we face in front of this current pandemic,” he says.

“We appreciate natural and social sciences. We recognize the race after medicine and vaccine to fight against viral diseases. All these endeavors are necessary. However, these efforts get more light if they are done with faith, hope and love. We need the light of faith in order to overcome unnecessary fear, disturbance, anxiety and despair. While resorting to maximum human effort, let us also rely on God’s grace. Let us lift up our eyes to God, the source of life, when human solutions seem to be so distant.”

Cardinal Berhaneyesus also adds that history “shows how numerous champions of faith, religious and lay, have sacrificed their life by serving the needy during pandemics” adding, “These witnesses of Christ have glorified God and human beings, created in His image and likeness. That is why today’s health workers and all assistants deserve our praise and recognition. Believing that the Lord blesses them for what they give, let us join them in their precious service through our prayers and actions.”

He insists that there is someone we often forget namely, Our Mother Earth, as he explains the pandemic in the context of the crisis of the environment we are currently facing.

“Mother Earth’s cry, together with the tears of the poor, reach the gates of heaven. To offend her is to offend her creator as it stands written, ‘Those who mock the poor insult their Maker (Pro 17:5 NRS).’ His Holiness Pope Francis says in Laudato Si no. 2.”

Therefore, Cardinal Berhaneyesus continues by inviting the faithful to actively take part in the Green Legacy project which the Ethiopian Government launched last year.

“Our beloved country Ethiopia is inviting us her children and people of good will to care for our common home by planting trees. As the rainy season starts soon, it is our duty and responsibility to respond to the invitation made by our Political leaders to plant trees and let us be part of the history of making Ethiopia green again.”

The letter further encourages the faithful to pray so that all may be guided by the light of the Holy Spirit to find a remedy to Covid-19.

“Let us ask for the light of the Holy Spirit. May the Spirit of God that hovered over the waters at the creation of the Universe eradicate this pandemic and allow us to sing the hymn of creation.”