ETHIOPIA – “War is to be avoided: we need small signs that nourish peace in the world”
“War should be avoided, because then the consequences are always deleterious for everyone. Angelo Antolini, Apostolic Prefect of Robe, writes to Agenzia Fides from his mission in Gode, in the Somali region.
“You all know of the worrying and uncertain political and military events that we are living in Ethiopia right now”, he continues, referring to the serious crisis the country is going through. “I try to live in peace and sow the seeds of peace as much as I can in my small way, always asking for reconciliation between people who are in conflict, who have not spoken to each other for years, who hate each other. Those little signs of peace that nurture world peace. Many have left, others are invited by their embassies to do so. My life is where the Lord has given me the grace to live for over forty years. In this uncertainty and confusion of news, silence and prayer would be useful to all”. The Prefect of Robe is currently in Gode, “to support the little Church which subsists with Sister Joachim, Tesemma and Abdella in this place of adversity – as he himself declared. I firmly and without hesitation believe in the words of Jesus: ‘When two or three gather in my name, I am among them’. I am here, in this wonderful desert, as only the desert can be, and a place of extreme challenges, to experience the presence of the risen Jesus in this difficult town, full of contradictions and contrasts in the center of the scorching desert of Somalia. ”
Going back to the latest events concerning the Catholic communities of the Apostolic Prefecture of Robe, Fr. Antolini recounted the meeting with the ten brothers and sisters of the Secretariat of the Synod of the Prefecture who met for three days at the Adaba Formation Center. “I also participated as a listener. It is so important for me to listen at the moment. Almost all the brothers and sisters of the Prefecture have been consulted with specific and concrete questions to collaborate and help me in the discernment that is due to me as primary service in the Church of Robe, to guide the brothers and sisters where the Good Shepherd, Jesus, likes”. (AA/AP) (Agenzia Fides, 3/12/2021)
