Apostolic Prefecture/Vicariate of Abyssinia The area now covered by the
Archeparchy was part of the huge
Latin Catholic Apostolic Prefecture of Abyssinia, when this prefecture was established in 1839 and was at first based at
Massawa and then (from 1860) at
Keren in
Eritrea, before transferring to what is now the north of Ethiopia in 1894. Before 1839, the area of the present Archeparchy and the rest of the territory of the Apostolic Prefecture of Abyssinia belonged to the still vaster
Apostolic Vicariate of Syria, Egypt, Arabia and Cyprus. On 4 May 1846, the Apostolic Prefecture of Abyssinia lost much territory to the south on the establishment of the
Apostolic Vicariate of the Galla (see below). Next year, it was raised to the rank of
Apostolic Vicariate and therefore given a
titular bishop as its head. On 19 September 1894, it lost territory to the north to the new
Apostolic Prefecture of Eritrea. The 1847 loss to the Apostolic Vicariate of the
Galla involved a vast territory but no established missions; the smaller territory lost in 1894 to the Apostolic Prefecture of Eritrea contained 25 of its 28 parishes. On 25 March 1937, in a general reorganization of Catholic jurisdictions in Ethiopia that followed its military conquest by Italy, the Apostolic Vicariate of Abyssinia was suppressed The city of
Addis Ababa, founded forty years later, in 1886, is situated at 9°N, 39°E. The site of Addis Ababa was thus in the Apostolic Prefecture of Abyssinia for only seven years and remained 91 years in the Apostolic Vicariate of the Galla. The Apostolic Vicariate of the
Galla lost territory on 28 January 1913 with the creation of the
Apostolic Prefecture of Southern Keffa. In 1937, its boundaries were changed and it was renamed
Apostolic Vicariate of Harar (see below).
Reorganization under Italian rule A year after the
Italian conquest of Ethiopia, the Apostolic Vicariate of Abyssinia was suppressed on 25 March 1937. From its territory three new apostolic prefectures were formed (
Gondar,
Tigray and
Dessie), while
Danakil was annexed to the (Latin-Church)
Apostolic Vicariate of Eritrea. A new Apostolic Vicariate of Addis Abeba was created, with territory corresponding to that of
Shewa Governorate. Unlike the other vicariates and prefectures, which were placed in the care of missionary institutes, the Addis Abeba jurisdiction was entrusted to its
secular clergy.
Ethiopic-Rite ordinaries in Ethiopia After the defeat of the Italian forces in the
East African Campaign (World War II), clergy of Italian nationality, including the apostolic vicars and prefects, were expelled from Ethiopia. Pastoral care of the Catholics in Ethiopia was attended to by Ethiopian and Eritrean clergy, almost all of whom followed the
Ge'ez Rite. Those that came to Addis Ababa were natives of
the Apostolic Prefecture of Tigray. Accordingly, at the end of 1942, all the Catholic faithful in Ethiopia were made subject to
Kidanè-Maryam Cassà,
Titular Bishop of
Thibaris, Ordinary for Ethiopic-Rite indigenous Catholics in Eritrea. In 1950,
Hailemariam Kahsay (
Italian form: Hailé Mariam Cahsai), a native of the then Apostolic Prefecture of Tigray, which within a decade was to be replaced by the
Ethiopian Catholic Eparchy of Adigrat, was made Apostolic Administrator of the Ethiopic-Rite faithful resident in all of Ethiopia, and on 24 February 1951 he was appointed
Titular Bishop of
Sozusa in Libya. On 31 October 1951, a new
apostolic exarchate for Ethiopic-Rite Catholics (the Eastern equivalent of a Latin apostolic vicariate), to be called that of Addis Abeba, was established, coextensive with the
Ethiopian Empire. Hailemariam Kahsay became its first exarch. On 20 February 1961, the year after Eritrea became part of the Ethiopian Empire,
Pope John XXIII established an
ecclesiastical province for Ethiopic-Rite Catholics living in the Empire. The apostolic exarchate of Addis Abeba became its
metropolitan see and thus an
archeparchy. It was given two suffragan eparchies: that of Asmara (previously, like Addis Abeba, an apostolic exarchate) and the
eparchy of Adigrat. The jurisdictional area of Addis Abeba was reduced to the territories that had been assigned in 1937 to the Latin apostolic vicariate of Addis Abeba and the apostolic prefectures of
Gondar,
Dessie and
Endeber. From then on, there have been in Ethiopia (excluding Eritrea) no overlapping of Latin and Ethiopic jurisdictions. On 9 April 1961, Hailemariam Kahsay was appointed the first Eparch of Adigrat, his native area, and his successor in Addis Abeba was Asrate Mariam Yemmeru, transferred from the
see of Asmara. On 25 November 2003, the
Eparchy of Emdeber was established on territory taken from the archeparchy as a second Ethiopian suffragan see. By then the Eparchy of Asmara had been divided into four eparchies, so that the suffragan sees of the Archeparchy of Addis Abeba were six. On 19 January 2015, the number of suffragan sees was reduced to three through, on the one hand, the setting up of a third Ethiopian eparchy, that of
Bahir Dar-Dessie, with territory taken from that of the metropolitan archeparchy, and, on the other hand, the separation of the four Eritrean eparchies to form the distinct
Eritrean Catholic Church. == Previous Ordinaries ==