Gambella, 29 September, 2020 / 7:29 pm (ACI Africa).
Pope Francis has appointed Bishop Roberto Bergamaschi, a member of the Religious Institute of the Salesians of Don Bosco (SDB), as the Vicar Apostolic of Gambella in the Western part of Ethiopia.
The Tuesday, September 29 appointment will see Bishop Bergamaschi shepherd the people of God in the Horn of Africa jurisdiction, which has been vacant since March when Bishop Angelo Moreschi, a member of SDB, succumbed to COVID-19. Bishop Moreschi was the first known Catholic Prelate to die of the pandemic.
Bishop Bergamaschi who has been serving as the Vicar Apostolic of Awasa Vicariate in central Ethiopia since 2016 is expected to become the second Apostolic Vicar of Gambella.
The 65-year-old Bishop is a native of the Diocese of Brescia in the Italian region of Lombardy. He studied philosophy in Turin - Crocetta and Theology in Cremisan in the Holy Land from 1975-1981.
He was ordained a Priest in October 1982. In the first years of his Priestly ministry, he served as Pastor at Zway, in Ethiopia’s Apostolic Vicariate of Meki from 1982-1993.
