Ethiopia: a new Comboni missionary priest

Bishop Luka Fikre, his appointed successor, was also present together with some 30 priests, including a good group of Comboni missionaries. A number of sisters, including the Comboni missionary sisters’ coordinator in Ethiopia with three candidates in formation, and the MCCJ pre-postulants and postulants and their formators also came to the ordination.

The ordination Eucharist was celebrated in the Ethiopian Catholic Rite used mostly in the north of the country. The liturgy was sung in Ge’ez (an old liturgical language) and Amharic in a prayerful dialogue among the celebrants, the cantors and the assembly. It took three hours.

Abba Melaku, the newly ordained Comboni priest, is 30. The second last child of his family, he has seven siblings: three brothers and four sisters. He is the second Comboni missionary from the Gurage ethnic group; the other is a Comboni Brother.

His ordination concludes a ten-year formation journey that started in the Postulancy in Addis Ababa, in Ethiopia, followed by the Noviciate in Lusaka, Zambia where he made his first profession in the Institute on May 6, 2017. After concluding the course of Theology in Naples, Italy, he did his missionary service in the Comboni Mission of Gublak, among the Gumuz, in Ethiopia.

During his homily, Bishop Musei underlined that the newly ordained priest has a long journey all over the world as a messenger of Christ. “He does not belong to his family anymore. He is a universal man. We will pray for him, for his missionary activity. He is going to proclaim the Good News and practice interreligious dialogue”, the ordaining bishop explained.

Fr Melaku, on his turn, expressed during his speech in Gurage, Amharic, English and Italian at the end of the celebration the joy he was experiencing. “My heart is full of joy for the great gift that the Lord has given to me. Once again, the Lord bent over, and welcomed my weaknesses, and transformed them into grace”, he proclaimed.

“To be a minister and pastor of his beloved Church through the Institute of the Comboni Missionaries of the Heart of Jesus is an immense gift from the Lord. Dearest brothers and sisters, it is really like that; this morning together we participated in the greatest miracle of life; it is a great gift of mercy and tenderness of a Father towards his son”, he added.

Fr Asfaha Yohannes, the MCCJ Provincial Superior in Ethiopia, during his thanksgiving speech announced that Fr Melaku will start exercising his missionary priesthood in Mexico.

After the ordination liturgy, the assembly sat outside the church to share a refreshment and to offer some gifts to the newly ordained priest. A light rain blessed the occasion.

Later, the guests were treated to a very abundant and tasty lunch that included many Gurage traditional dishes.

Fr Melaku celebrated his thanksgiving mass on Sunday, June 2, assisted by the MCCJ’s Provincial Superior in Ethiopia and his acting parish priest.

Br Desu Yisrashe, himself a Gurage, prepared the ordination. During the preceding days he held meetings of missionary and vocation animation with the faithful and the youth in Gura Awiyate parish and in Emdiber, the cathedral parish.

Fr. José da Silva Vieira
Jirenna