Addis Ababa (Fides Service)- “For some time the Catholic Bishops of Ethiopia have been working on this project and now at last it is taking shape” said local Church sources in Addis Ababa where the government and the Catholic Bishops recently reached an agreement to give the country its first Catholic University. The agreement was signed on September by the President of the Bishops’ Conference Archbishop Berhaneyesus Demerew Souraphiel of Addis Ababa and Papal Nuncio Archbishop Ramiro Moliner Ingles for the Church and two government members Minister education Genet Zewde and foreign minister Esteri, Seyoum Mesfin for the state.
“The agreement is also a sign of government recognition for the contribution offered by the local Catholic community to the country’s education system” the sources said. “Hundreds of schools of all grades all over the country are a resource for the Church and the nation”.
“The Catholic university will be set in the nation wide network of Catholic institutions and a gradual improvement process of existing structures. In fact besides the central campus in the capital Addis Ababa, the university will have branches in other cities in existing centres of higher studies suitably developed.
The times and modes of the project will probably be discussed in the scheduled meeting of the Conference of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Ethiopia and Eritrea in Rome in the second week of October.
The Archbishop of Addis Ababa said that like all the other Catholic institutions in Ethiopia the new university will be for all Ethiopians, irrespective of religious beliefs or social conditions. “Catholics are a small minority here and we realise that most of the students will not be Catholics but they will be very welcome although we will make sure the College maintains its Catholic identity” said local Church sources. “Probably the Catholic Theology Institute in Addis Ababa and the new University will be affiliated”.
According to the Catholic Church Year Book 2003 Catholic schools in Ethiopia are as follows: 148 kindergartens with 20,702 children; 128 primary schools with 47,210 pupils and 59 secondary and high schools with 20,070 pupils (). (L.M.) (Agenzia Fides 29/9/2005 righe 33 parole 386)