A LE TTER FRO M ET HI O PI A
Pain, Prayer and Hope by Teshome Fikre Woldetensae
T
here is so much pain and confusion around the world. The coronavirus pandemic has caused panic. Under lockdown, people remain in their houses, and their spiritual, social and economic lives have been seriously affected. All of us are feeling confused, discouraged and indeed frightened by the coronavirus and by the attempts to prevent its transmission. The news is so disturbing, we worry. We don’t know what lies ahead. Churches are closed and priests and faithful are detached, with Catholics and Orthodox Christians bereft of the sacraments. People are hungry for Christ present in the elements of bread and wine. Priests celebrate the Holy Eucharist, but in empty parish churches. In Ethiopia many people do not have access to electricity and the internet, so it is difficult to livestream religious services. People feel the importance of prayer and they are crying to God. The closure of the churches for the public may be God’s way of asking us to return to our roots, to the very meaning of what it means to be church. It invites us to a make faith-filled effort to believe that in God we live and move and have our being. No door can be closed to our reaching God and to God reaching us.
The first action taken by the Catholic Church after the coronavirus arrived in Ethiopia was to immediately close the schools. The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Ethiopia issued guidelines to be implemented in all institutions and parishes. In the first two weeks, religious functions were not suspended, but other protocols — such as social distancing and the washing of hands upon entering churches — were applied strictly. Some changes made to the liturgical norms were a shock for many Catholics. Personally, I found it difficult to explain to our people why we had to take such precautions in response to COVID-19. Also, we have been advising people to stay at home to be safe. But this has been difficult, since many families need to bring bread home every day. Priests, religious men and women and other pastoral ministers are engaged in intensive prayer and spiritual guidance for the faithful. After practicing social distancing principles in churches for two weeks, it was decided that the churches should be completely closed in consultation with all religious confessions and the government. Once the decision was made to close churches, priests continued to offer daily Mass on behalf of the community. Bells continue to ring to remind the faithful of the main prayerful moments of the day: morning, midday and evening prayer. Once the government declared a state of emergency, leaders of all religious confessions declared a month-long period of prayer, so that the faithful could cry to God for the eradication of
“I’ve had some sleepless nights. Celebrating Mass in an empty church and listening to peoples’ fear and anxiety all make me cry.”
Abba Teshome Fikre Woldetensae, a priest from the Eparchy of Emdibir, serves the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Ethiopia as the deputy general secretary and director of its national pastoral commission.
OFFICIAL PUBLICATION OF CNEWA
31
