Cardinal Berhaneyesus was born in Cheleleqa, Ethiopia on 14 July 1948. In 1963 he entered the Lazarist Minor Seminary and then studied philosophy at the Makanissa Major Seminary. He was ordained a priest on 4 July 1976 in Ethiopia where he was imprisoned by the Communists from 1979-1980.
After his release, he moved to Rome, where he served as a delegate to the General Assembly of the Congregation of the Mission. Back to Ethiopia, in 1985 he began serving as director of the Lazarist Novitiate and with the establishment of the Apostolic Prefecture of Jimma Bonga, in 1994, he became the first apostolic prefect.
On 25 January 1998 he was ordained a bishop subsequent to his appointment as titutlar Bishop of Bita and as Auxiliary of the archdiocese of Addis Ababa. On 7 July 1999 he was appointed Archbishop of Addis Ababa.
Since 1999 he has served as president of the Ethiopian and Eritrean Episcopal Conference, as official representative of the Catholic Church to the Ethiopian Government and international organizations in Ethiopia.
Since 1998 he has served as president of the Council of the Ethiopian Church. In 2014 he was elected chairman of the Association of Member Episcopal Conferences in Eastern Africa. He was created and proclaimed Cardinal by Pope Francis in the consistory of 15 February 2015, of the Title of San Romano Martire.
First of all, can you tell us how the faithful and the church of Ethiopia have received the news of a Synod on Synodality and how reacted?
“We received the news of the synod and the Holy Father’s invitation with great joy because walking together, the same interpretation of the synod, is something very much appreciated in Ethiopian society. People are ready to walk together, talk together, even feel together before arriving at decisions and conclusions.
I repeat, the news was received with great joy. The people starting with the bishops and the bishops’ conference, all the consecrated, the religious, the laity, the catechists, we all decided to start with the family.
We wanted every family to think about the Synod, to pray for the Synod and for everyone, grandparents, parents, children to be involved. Our grassroots communities, who gather and meditate on scripture regularly, felt they had to get involved for this very important appointment. Each diocese had its preparatory synod and then there was the national synod”.
You are a minority but a very active church. Has the news of the Synod also involved in some ways the Orthodox Church (Tewahedo Church) and other sister churches?
“The Synod process was mainly among ourselves alone, a small community. But spiritually, we are also with our sister churches, the Orthodox majority, a very old church. We pray for the unity and stability of this ancient church that experiences some divisions.
But we also feel united with the Protestants. We did not ask to attend but they heard and followed thanks to our media. We spoke of Pope Francis’ will for this Synod, a very open and inclusive will towards all Christians. We are small (Catholics, out of 120 million inhabitants, are 2%, 50% are Orthodox, 33% Muslims, the rest Protestants and traditional faiths, ed) but we have many social structures in the country – schools, hospitals, aid centres – where many people of all faiths come and we spoke and explained about the Synod. People appreciate the work of the Church and feel close to us”.
Can you update us about the general situation of the country? Is there news on the hotbeds of war still burning in the country? How are the peace processes going?
“As you know the situation in Ethiopia is very complex. There are conflicts in various parts of the country. Yes the war in TIgray has ended (with a peace agreement in November 2022 after two years of war and about 500,000 casualties, ed) but new conflicts have opened up, such as in the Oromia region, in the west and since a few days also in the Amara region.
Then the drought in the southwest and in the east, our missionaries and priests, the religious, are hard at work to help and bring support to the many in difficulty. We are praying a lot so that what we experienced during the Synod, listening, silence and prayer, will also bear fruit in my country.
We are a rich country, with a thousand years of history, our own calendar, our own alphabet, but we experience periods of conflict. Wars have arisen in various parts as a consequence of a new political decision to make a federal system.
Federalism is good as a system can be a great gain for Ethiopia, but if it ends up being a division of land on linguistic bases and ethnic divisions, it will cause more conflict. We are very concerned about hate speech, politicians instead of working for unity play their role to set one ethnic group against the other and in the end only the poor suffer”.
How do you feel about the centrality that Africa has had in this Synod and generally speaking in the Church’s debate?
“It is interesting what is happening on our continent. The Church is growing a lot in Africa while, unfortunately, it is diminishing in Europe. We were very well represented at the Synod assemblies but I believe our presence should be even greater.
That is where the future lies, that is where the future of the Church lies. The assemblies were important moments because we were all led by the Holy Spirit, throughout the month of October, and I can tell you that the Spirit found ways to speak through the African church.
In addition to bishops, representatives of the laity, the various Catholic organisations in the area were also represented, e.g. the president and deputy of the Symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar, SECAM.
We held the continental synod meeting in my city, and it was there that we all prepared the synod together. The synthesis we came up with reflects what a church with great responsibility has to do. It was also an opportunity to thank especially those countries where missionaries have worked so hard and the African church of today is the fruit of their work.
Ancient churches like ours, Egypt or North Africa offer their own original contribution of spirituality, monasticism and Catholic Christian culture that has managed to enculturate in individual countries”.
The Pope has a special look towards the south…
We were very happy about the last Pope’s visit to Africa, specifically to Congo and South Sudan. There he raised his voice against the exploitation of an entire continent and in South Sudan he repeatedly implored the leaders to make peace because the poor are suffering. The pope addresses very important issues concerning people’s suffering, and often people reduce everything to questions like whether or not to bless same-sex marriages. But in Africa there are things the pope deals with that are very important, social issues, political issues, refugees…”
