African Values Relevant to Synodal Journey, Have “great impact” Globally: Ethiopian Bishop

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“African values should not be diluted by the dictatorship of democracy or globalization because these values have much to teach to the whole world,” Bishop Ghebreghiorghis reiterated during the Orthodox Liturgy. 

The 73-year-old Ethiopian Catholic Bishop who has been at the helm of Ethiopia’s Emdeber Eparchy since his Episcopal Ordination in February 2004 further noted that “our synodal journey should help us to deepen further on these African values, which may have a great impact on the world.”

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Reflecting on the Synodal process that is at the continental stage, Bishop Ghebreghiorghis said, “It is an invitation to reawaken our baptismal promises and to be attentive to what the Holy Spirit is saying to each one of us, to our local churches, to the whole of Africa and the world at large.”

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He expressed his awareness of the “different challenges at this time in history” that the people of God in Africa are going through, highlighting “the challenges of governance, ethnic conflict, fundamentalism, or religious and ideological extremism, poverty, and climate change.”

He pondered if the people of God in Africa “are part of the problem or they have proposals for solutions to these problems.”

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“Are we credible witnesses?” he posed, and continued, “People claim to be Christians yet they don't live as Christians. They claim to be the people of God and at times they have no mercy among themselves.”

Bishop Ghebreghiorghis said he found it regrettable that “most of the wars, most of the conflicts that are going on in Africa at times are among Christians themselves.”

Through the Synodal process, he said, “Pope Francis wants to tell us that our synodal journey should give an answer to these problems and to these question marks.”  

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The Local Ordinary of Emdeber further said the spiritual exercises during the ongoing Lenten Season “will increase the faith, hope and charity of the people of God in Africa.”

“We need radical conversion that will enable us to be attentive to the voice of the spirit, to be attentive to the voice of each one of us, to be attentive to listen to our people, seeking for us to be open to dialogue, to accept everyone as he is with all his gifts, with all graces that God has given him,” he said.

Such attentiveness, Bishop Ghebreghiorghis said, can foster “living together as a society in Africa, marked by justice, reconciliation, and peace.”

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Jude Atemanke is a Cameroonian journalist with a passion for Catholic Church communication. He holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Journalism and Mass Communication from the University of Buea in Cameroon. Currently, Jude serves as a journalist for ACI Africa.