Let’s Conquer Hatred with Love, Cardinal Says in Message for Good Friday in Ethiopia

Addis Ababa, 22 April, 2022 / 9:27 PM

The Cardinal in Ethiopia has challenged the people of God in the Horn of Africa nation to allow love to conquer hatred and to embrace dialogue amid the ravaging humanitarian situation in the country.

In his message for Good Friday, which was marked in Ethiopia on Friday, April 22, Berhaneyesus Cardinal Souraphiel says that with dialogue, Ethiopians can easily conquer the violent conflict in their country.

“Today, through the cross of Christ, we can overcome hatred with love, revenge with forgiveness, sorrow with joy, conflict with dialogue, endurance with perseverance, and Christian hope,” Cardinal Souraphiel says in a report shared with ACI Africa.

He adds, “The bishops entrust all Catholics to plead for mercy, reconciliation, and peace to our beloved Ethiopia, and to lay all the sufferings of the people under the cross of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.”

Ethiopia’s Tigray region has been the scene of violence since 4 November 2020 when Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed-led government ordered a military offensive against the authorities in the State. 

The military offensive was in response to the alleged attack on Ethiopia’s largest military base located in Tigray’s capital, Mekelle, by forces loyal to the region’s government.

According to the leadership of Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW), a UK-based human rights organization, since the war began, over 52,000 people have died, an estimated 1.7 million have been displaced internally and over 60,000 have fled the country.

In his Message for Good Friday in Ethiopia, the Archbishop of Addis Ababa who doubles as the President of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Ethiopia (CBCE), calls on “all people of good will to pray”, especially for those affected by the war.

He asks that “the King of Peace, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, grant true peace to our land of Ethiopia.”

“I call once again on all people of good will to pray together for those who are suffering severely from the war,” the 73-year-old member of the Congregation of the Mission (CM) says.

He adds, in reference to the Easter celebration in Ethiopia slated for Sunday, April 24, “The resurrection of Christ gives power to every Christian and to mankind to overcome all evils and sin.”

“As we celebrate this Easter, I would like to entrust all of us to celebrate by doing our best to share the grief and the suffering of the needy, the weak, the displaced, and the sick,” Cardinal Souraphiel says in his Message for Good Friday in Ethiopia shared with ACI Africa.

He further says, “In the name of the resurrected Jesus Christ, we beseech all concerned body to facilitate for accesses so that emergency humanitarian aids can reach the people who currently are very much in need.”