Denomination Ethiopian Catholic Established 1839/1961 Country Ethiopia | Rite Ge'ez Rite Pope Francis | |
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Metropolitan Berhaneyesus Demerew Souraphiel Cathedral Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary Ecclesiastical province Berhaneyesus Demerew Souraphiel Bishop Berhaneyesus Demerew Souraphiel Auxiliary bishop Lisane-Christos Matheos Semahun | ||
The Metropolitan Ethiopian Catholic Archeparchy of Addis Ababa sui iuris (Addis Abeba of the Ethiopics) is an archeparchy (Eastern Catholic archdiocese) and the Metropolitan See of the Ecclesiastical province of Addis Abeba, covering the entire country, which has three suffragans, all in Ethiopia.
Contents
Its cathedral episcopal see is the Cathedral of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, in national capital Addis Abeba.
The Metropolitan Berhaneyesus Demerew Souraphiel is also the head of the Ethiopian Catholic Church sui iuris (Eastern Catholic, Alexandrian Rite in Archaic Ge'ez), which comprises only his province. Yet even he still depends on the missionary Roman Congregation for the Oriental Churches.
He is styled Primate of Ethiopia, which country also has an overlapping Latin hierarchy, so far only comprising nine exempt missionary pre-diocesan jurisdictions.
Statistics
As per 2014, it pastorally served 27,713 Ethiopian [Eastern] Catholics (0.1% of 30,302,000 total) on 253,000 km² in 23 parishes and 7 missions with 187 priests (26 diocesan, 161 religious), 494 lay religious (176 brothers, 318 sisters) and 64 seminarians.
Ecclesiastical province
Its suffragan eparchies (diocesan sees) are :
History
The present Archeparchy was established in 1839 as the huge (Latin Catholic) Apostolic Prefecture of Abyssinia, formed and based in Keren, Eritrea, on territory removed from the jurisdiction of the even vaster Apostolic Vicariate of Syria, Egypt, Arabia and Cyprus.
On 1846.05.04 it lost Ethiopian territory to establish the Apostolic Vicariate of Galla.
In 1847 the prefecture was raised to Apostolic Vicariate of Abyssinia (hence entitled to a titular bishop).
It was renamed on 25 March 1937, after its seat (having been moved), to become the Apostolic Vicariate of Addis Ababa, having lost Ethiopian territories to establish the Apostolic Prefecture of Dessié (now it suffragan) and Apostolic Prefecture of Gondar.
On October 31, 1951, the (Latin) Apostolic vicariate was changed to an Apostolic Exarchate, establishing it as part of the Eastern Catholic Churches. It was made a fully independent diocese, on February 20, 1961, when it became a Metropolitan Archeparchy. The Eparchy of Emdeber was established as a suffragan daughter see on November 25, 2003 with territory separated from the archeparchy.
In January 2015 Pope Francis detached the eparchies in Eritrea from the ecclesiastical province of Addis Abeba by erecting the Metropolitan Eritrean Catholic Church sui iuris. (also Alexandrian Rite), covering all Eritrea.
On the same day Pope Francis established a new Ethiopian eparchy Bahir Dar-Dessie, which is also a suffragan daughter eparchy of Addis Abeba.
Latin church
(all Latin Rite European members of a missionary order)