ETHIOPIA: Bishops Invite Partners to work for Peace

ADDIS ABABA, SEPTEMBER 24, 2019 (CISA)-The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Ethiopia has invited partners of the Catholic Church to work together in realization of calls of peace.

Fr Teshome Fikre, Secretary General of the Catholic bishops Conference of Ethiopia, in his opening speech during the Ethiopian Catholic Church Partners Annual Coordination Meeting in Addis Ababa  he said that the Catholic Church in its efforts to address peace issues focuses on tackling the root causes of conflict.

“The Church attempts to nourish the culture of peace and the peace making role of the Catholic Church focuses on resolving conflicts and building conditions for lasting peace by promotion and protection of human rights and advancing integral human development,” reported Ethiopian Catholic Secretariat.

Fr Teshome underscored that the Catholic Church recognizes poverty and lact of basic necessity are some of the main causes for conflict and addressing them is a step towards achieving sustainable peace.

“All grass root development actions the church is involved contribute greatly for peaceful coexistence and we need to strengthen our interventions,” he said.

The Archbishop of Addis Ababa and President of the Catholic Bishops Conference of Ethiopia, Berhaneyesus Cardinal D. Souraphiel, present during the meeting reassured that the Catholic Church is always praying for peace and working to be an instrument of peace.

“The Catholic Church along with other religious institutions is praying and striving for peace. We work for sustainable peace by attempting to address the root causes of conflict, with an objective to maximize the potentials, the experiences and the social teachings of the Catholic Church in peace building ministry which is part of evangelization mission of the Church and eventually develop common strategy and identify action in a very coordinated way for peace building ministry,” said Cardinal Berhaneyesus.

He condemned the recent violent incidents in Ethiopia saying they are against the real culture of Ethiopia.

The Ethiopian Catholic Church Partners Annual Coordination Meeting under the theme “Contribution of the Catholic Church in Addressing conflict in view of addressing peaceful coexistence in Ethiopia” has been taking between September 23 and 24.