ADDIS ABABA, ETHIOPIA - Ethiopia is not like the rest of Africa. Just ask an Ethiopian.
Africa takes its place in universal Church
By Michael Swan, The Catholic RegisterADDIS ABABA, ETHIOPIA - The Catholic Church is more African than most Canadians realize. We pay no attention to the early African popes — Gelasius I (492 to 496), Miltiades (311 to 314) and Victor I (189 to 199). We gloss over the African origins of some of the most significant writers and thinkers of early Christianity, including the evangelist Mark, author of the oldest Gospel in the canon, and theologians Tertullian, Origen and St. Augustine of Hippo.
Horn of Africa facing worst drought in 60 years
By Michael Swan, The Catholic RegisterJIJIGA, ETHIOPIA - At the end of June the Famine Early Warning Systems Network of the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization issued a warning about dry conditions in Ethiopia, Somalia and the rest of the Horn of Africa. On July 5 the UN called it “the worst drought in 60 years” in the Horn of Africa, with Ethiopia and Somalia worst hit.
D&P goes back to the basics
By Michael Swan, The Catholic RegisterClimate change has refocused the Canadian Catholic Organization for Development and Peace’s commitments in Africa and worldwide.
Nomadic African life dies of thirst
By Michael Swan, The Catholic RegisterJIJIGA, ETHIOPIA - Nasri Yaseen Gourate is a young Somali man, husband and father, a hard worker with a voice among the men of his clan. But the most remarkable thing about Nasreen is that he is a Somali man with no cattle, no camels, no goats, no sheep. He sold them all.
Refugees play the waiting game
By Michael Swan, The Catholic RegisterADDIS ABABA, ETHIOPIA - Yeshi Wubet carries a scrap of hope around in her purse, folded and unfolded to the point of fragility. It’s a letter from the United Nations High Commission for Refugees office in Addis Ababa dated July 7, 2014 and signed by Assistant Representative (Protection) Milagros Leynes.
Canadian Jesuit’s work embodies vision of Pedro Arrupe
By Michael Swan, The Catholic RegisterADDIS ABABA, ETHIOPIA - The Jesuit Refugee Service in Africa had its baptism of fire in Ethiopia trying to save the lives of hundreds of thousands of starving Ethiopians. Almost as soon as the JRS was founded in Ethiopia, the 1984 famine galvanized world attention, inspired the Band Aid mega-concerts and put the Jesuits to work. The Jesuit who led the JRS in Ethiopia, who tangled with communist government ministers, found 10-tonne trucks to deliver food, put medical care in place, is Canadian.
21st century being shaped by the plight of refugees
By Michael Swan, The Catholic RegisterDOLLO ADO, ETHIOPIA - Fifty-one year old Somali refugee Abdi Mahdi is one of about 25 students taking an English class offered by the Jesuit Refugee Service in the Kobe refugee camp, about three kilometres from the border between Ethiopia and Somalia.