BRESCIA, MARCH 27, 2020 (CISA)-Bishop Abune Angelo Moreschi the Apostolic Vicar of Gambella Vicariate is dead.
Bishop Moreschi died on Wednesday, March 25 in Brescia, Italy becoming the first Catholic bishop to succumb to coronavirus.
According to Vatican News, the bishop was in Italy for treatment when he developed fever and respiratory problems on March 19. He was briefly hospitalized, and died at the Salesian seminary in Brescia.
“I write to inform you of the passing on of His Excellency Abune Angelo Moreschi, S.D.B Vicar Apostolic of Gambela,” said Abba Teshome Fikre, the Secretary General of Catholic Bishops Conference of Ethiopia (CBCE) on the behalf of Berhaneyesus Cardinal Souraphel, the President of CBCE.
The bishops’ conference conveyed condolence to the apostolic vicariate of Gambella assuring of their closeness and prayers.
“In his mission as a prefect and then as Apostolic Vicar, he continued to embody the Salesian focus in helping children, accompanying them by his practical spirit and his strong apostolic zeal,” reads a statement released by the Salesians of Don Bosco the missionary congregation to which Bishop Moreschi belonged.
Bishop Moreschi was born in June 13, 1952 in Nave, Italy, joined the Salesian order ordained in 1982 before he was sent to Ethiopia as a missionary. He was appointed Apostolic Prefect of Gambella on November 19, 2000 and appointed Bishop when the Prefecture was made a vicariate in 2009.
