AFRICA/ETHIOPIA - Robe Apostolic Prefecture: “We are turning the desert into an oasis”

Friday, 1 April 2022

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Addis Abeba (Agenzia Fides) - "Some may have the impression that I have abandoned the Prefecture, in fact I have lived all this time in the heart of our Church, where the Gospel has not yet arrived, among the Somali people, and I have started learning their language and their customs", said Father Angelo Antolini OFM cap., Apostolic Prefect of Robe, upon his return to the Ethiopian capital. "I arrived in Gode in the second half of February", reports the missionary, "a week before the start of the unfortunate war in Europe. I spent the whole month of March in the Somali region of the prefecture. Overall I spent a Lent there".
Fr. Angelo recalls the origins of the Robe Prefecture (see Fides, 13/2/2012), "if we go back ten years, one of the main reasons for establishing the prefecture was to find a way for evangelization in that part of the Apostolic Vicariate of Meki where the Gospel had never arrived before, i.e. in the Afder area of the Somalia region with an area of 50,000 square kilometers and half a million inhabitants.With the pastoral agreement reached a year and a half ago with Bishop Angelo Pagano of Harar, who has pastoral responsibility for the Mission of Gode, located just a hundred meters from the border of the Prefecture of Robe, things are changing. The presence of the Church, with Sister Joachim and the collaborators Tesemma, Abdella, two young lay missionaries from Oromo, and myself when I am there, constitute the sacramental presence of the Risen Lord in this city, in the middle of the desert. With us, united in the name of the risen Lord Jesus, with the power of the Holy Spirit, the risen and glorious Holy Body of the Lord Jesus is made present". The Prefect of Robe concludes his testimony and underlines that "the power of the Spirit of the Risen Lord makes us live in love for one another and in charity for the poor, especially for women in need and their children. It helps us to face the dry and turning desolate lands of this vast desert into an oasis, like modern day medieval monks". (AA/AP) (Agenzia Fides, 1/4/2022)

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