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The Catholic Leader, November 10, 2019
www.catholicleader.com.auNews
ETHIOPIA is now managing nearly
a million refugees from South
Sudan, Somalia, Eritrea, Sudan,
Yemen and even Syria, said Ethio-
pian Cardinal Berhaneyesus Soura-
phiel.
Because so many Ethiopians are refugees,
those who remain in the country work to make
newcomers feel welcome.
The cardinal, who visited Washington in late
November, said his country had been “a country
of hospitality, a country of open doors to mi-
grants and refugees who suffer in other parts of
the world. And if a poor country shares meagre
resources she has with migrants and refugees,
how much more should the richer countries (do).
Because one day, you might be a refugee or a mi-
grant yourself.”
“I was surprised when I saw Syrian refugees in
Addis Ababa and Ethiopia,” he said.
“I don’t know how they arrived, the mothers
arrived from Syria, and they have written on their
chests in Amharic ... ‘We are Syrians, we have
come from Syria, please help us’.”
In separate interviews with Catholic News
Service and with Catholic Standard, newspa-
per of the Archdiocese of Washington, Cardinal
Souraphiel told of how the Church was helping
refugees and how the country’s poverty was
forcing you people to emigrate from their home-
land.
Cardinal Souraphiel said the Church in his
country “is very much open to receive the refu-
gees”.
He said besides the Ethiopian Catholic Sec-
retariat, the Church worked with international
agencies such as Jesuit Refugee Service, Catholic
Near East Welfare Association, Caritas and affili-
ated agencies such as the United States bishops’
Catholic Relief Services.
Sisters of the Missionaries of
Charity especially helped with
trauma counselling, he said.
When refugees ar-
rived, Church workers
wanted “to let them
know that they are
welcomed” and get
them registered with
the United Nations
refugee agency, UN-
HCR.
If refugees regis-
tered with a parish,
they had access to Cath-
olic education and Catho-
lic health services.
“Ethiopians
themselves
are refugees in other countries in
some areas. So they know the need of
refugees,” the cardinal said.
Ethiopians “have sympathy and empathy for
refugees and also people on the move”, he said.
“They never had grudges with refugees, and
that is why I think Ethiopia is blessed by the
Lord,” Cardinal Souraphiel said.
Part of what drove young people to become
refugees was poverty, and that was the biggest
challenge facing the Church, he said.
“We live with the poor and we stay with them,”
he said.
“Wherever they are, we try to be the voice of
the disadvantaged, the displaced people.
“The Church especially tries to help abandoned
children, and also mothers who suffer because of
the big burden of taking care of the family, which
they bring with them when they mi-
grate from their own villages to
the cities.”
As of May, more than 2.8
million Ethiopians were
displaced within their
country.
As of 2018, Ethio-
pia’s unemployment
rate was more than
19 per cent.
Economic growth
on the national level
“might not trickle
down to the poor”, so
millions of unemployed
young people – including
those with college degrees
– wanted “to go abroad, es-
pecially to the Arab world and to
South Africa and to Europe”.
“Their aspiration is to escape the networks of
poverty and change their own individual lives and
the lives of their family members,” Cardinal Sou-
raphiel said.
And although many did, the majority strug-
gled. They may ended up abused, and many re-
turned home.
Church leaders tried to encourage people to
have hope, “especially the youth”, and they
worked with them to try to find employment
within the country.
The cardinal said he was disturbed when he
heard of Europeans closing their borders.
“This is not biblical; it’s not Christian,” he said.
He noted that the United States also is also a
country of migrants and refugees.
“This has been what has made America a spe-
cial country ... to be a home for persecuted per-
sons or for persons who looked for refuge from
violence in their own countries,” he said.
He said Christians and Muslims were very
moved when, in March, Pope Francis kissed the
feet of politicians from South Sudan.
“Each politician whose feet was kissed – be-
hind him are millions of refugees,” he said.
The gesture was “to prick their conscience, to
say to them, ‘You are responsible for the suffer-
ing of millions of mothers and children and el-
ders because of, say, love of wealth and political
power’.
“He did that just by bending down and kissing
the feet, not by many other words.
“If you ask me to bend down and kiss your
feet I might try, but I don’t know if I will get
up,” the 71-year-old said, laughing. “He, at 82
years old ... they gave him some help ... is able
to do that.”
CNS
US visitor:
Ethiopian Cardinal Berhaneyesus
Souraphiel is seen at the headquarters of the
United States Conference of Catholic Bishops
in Washington on October 24.
Photo: CNS
Seeking unity in Lebanon
Streets of protest:
Thirteen days of anti-government protests in Lebanon, including this October 25 demonstration in Beirut, led to the resignation of
Prime Minister Saad Hariri.
Photo: CNS
LEBANON’S Maronite bishops,
commending the unity of the Leba-
nese people amid a peaceful mass
uprising demanding a new govern-
ment, called for a “constructive
spirit” following the resignation of
the country’s prime minister.
“The Lord is leading the ship of the homeland
and we hope that this step will be the beginning
of the solution,” Maronite patriarch Cardinal
Bechara Rai said in response to the resignation
of Saad Hariri.
The resignation on October 29 came on the
13th day of massive countrywide protests that
found demonstrators celebrating by filling streets
and public squares and waving Lebanese flags.
The protests found Christians, Muslims and
Druze rising up against a deteriorating economic
situation and corruption in the government.
Cardinal Rai convened a meeting of the Maron-
ite bishops on October 30 at the patriarchate north
of Beirut in which they expressed their “sincere
tribute” to the people “who are protesting from all
sects and regions of Lebanon, coupled with the
support of their valid demands”.
The bishops, in a statement, said they hoped
all Lebanese people would receive the resigna-
tion “in a constructive spirit”.
They called on political officials “to rally
around” Lebanese President Michel Aoun “who
is entrusted with the constitution, to speed up the
taking of the necessary constitutional measures
to protect Lebanon, in response to the aspirations
of all Lebanese”.
The prelates commended the Lebanese people
for discovering “how united they are, united by
a set of principles and values derived from their
diverse beliefs, under the banner of one nation,
the Constitution” as well as the 1989 Charter
of Lebanese National Reconciliation and “their
shared demands”.
They called on the Lebanese “to be wise, so
that their sit-ins do not paralyse life in the coun-
try”, urging the people to stay clear of “provoca-
tion and all signs of conflict and violence”.
Banks, schools and most businesses have been
closed since the uprising began on October 17.
The prelates thanked Pope Francis “for his
good and noble attitude toward the Lebanese
uprising”.
Following the Angelus prayer at the Vatican
on October 27, Pope Francis sent “a special
thought to the dear Lebanese people, in particu-
lar to young people, who in recent days have
made their cry heard in the face of challenges
and the social, moral and economic problems of
the country”.
The Pope urged all of Lebanon “to seek the
right solutions along the path of dialogue”.
A resolution to the crisis in Lebanon, Pope
Francis said, would be “for the benefit of the en-
tire Middle East region, which suffers so much”.
Commencing with the ringing of church bells
throughout the country at 5.30pm on October27,
Cardinal Rai urged the faithful to pray the Ro-
sary each day at that time.
In leading the Rosary following Mr Hariri’s
resignation Cardinal Rai said, “We have said
from the beginning that our strength and arms
are the Rosary”.
CNS
Ethiopians, often refugees themselves,
welcome newcomers, cardinal says