“I feel small, I recognize my limitations”: Bishop-elect on Appointment as Auxiliary Bishop of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

The Comboni Missionary, who served on the General Council of his congregation from 2009 to 2024, expressed gratitude for the blessings he received during his tenure. 

He acknowledged the collaboration and dedication of his colleagues, including members of three General Councils, General Secretaries, and numerous confreres, saying, “I have received copious blessings and feel greatly enriched by my service to the Institute and the mission during my years on the General Council, despite my limitations.”

Mons. Gebresilasie sought forgiveness for the shortcomings he said he could have had during his years of service and placed his trust in God’s mercy.

“I ask forgiveness from all the confreres for my faults and for the mistakes I may have made during my service. And I trust, above all, in the immense mercy of God who knows how to transform everything for the good of His Kingdom,” he said.

“I pray to the Virgin Mary and St Daniel Comboni to accompany us in this process and to obtain for us the necessary graces,” the Bishop-elect said.

Mons. Gebresilasie was elected MCCJ Superior General during the 18th General Chapter in 2015; he was re-elected during the monthlong 19th General Chapter held in June 2022 at the Institute's General House in Rome. 

Earlier, he had served as MCCJ General Councilor responsible for Basic Formation and the circumscriptions of English-speaking Africa and Mozambique following his election to the General Council during the 17th General Chapter of 2009.

In the years preceding his election to the General Council, the Bishop-elect had served as Provincial Superior of the Comboni Missionaries in his native country of Ethiopia (2005-2009). He doubled as President of the Association of Major Superiors in the Horn of Africa nation. 

Born in Harar, a city in Eastern Ethiopia, the Bishop-elect, who turned 55 in September made his perpetual profession in September 1994. He was ordained a Priest on 26 August 1995 in Addis Ababa.

The alumnus of the Rome based Pontifical Gregorian University where he obtained a Licentiate in Theology also holds a Diploma in Islamic Studies from the Pontifical Institute of Arabic and Islamic Studies in Rome.

He also pursued Islamic studies at the Dar Comboni for Arabic Studies in Cairo, Egypt, and attended a formation course at the Pontifical Salesian University in Rome.

In a letter after the Episcopal appointment of Mons. Gebresilasie was made public, Rome-based MCCJ General Council members said that they had received the news with mixed feelings and emotions, adding, “Gratitude to God prevails for the gift that has been given to us so far in the person of Fr. Tesfaye as our Superior General, as well as a confrere.”

“We recognize that the choice of his person also represents a gift for the service to the particular church for whose growth we as an Institute collaborate,” MCCJ General Council members said in the November 6 letter seen by ACI Africa.

They referred to the “canonical provision”, which they said stipulated that “any hierarchical function exercised in the Institute ceases at the very moment in which the news of the episcopal nomination of a confrere is published by the Holy See.”

“With this message we therefore wish to communicate to everyone the ways in which we intend to continue the service of the General Council in this time of transition,” MCCJ General Council members said in the letter that the Secretary General, Brother Daniele G. Giusti, signed.

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In line with the highlighted canonical provision, the Vicar General has the mandate to convene Council meetings “to deal with ordinary and urgent business,” members of the MCCJ General Council said in their letter.

In his December 3 letter, Mons. Gebresilasie said, “I accompany with my prayers the discernment that is taking place for the election of our new Superior General.”

The Bishop-elect is set to assist Berhaneyesus Demerew Cardinal Souraphiel in shepherding the people of God in the Ethiopian Metropolitan See that measures 31,224 square kilometers. The region has a population of 11,150 Catholics representing less than one percent of the total population, according to the 2022 statistics.

The Archdiocese, which was erected in October 1951 as Vicariate Apostolic of Addis Ababa before being elevated to a Metropolitan See has three Suffragan Dioceses: Adigrat, Bahir Dar - Dessie, and Emdeber.