Asmara, 11 June, 2021 / 8:00 pm (ACI Africa).
Catholic Bishops in Eritrea have pledged to continue reclaiming Catholic institutions that the government has “forcibly taken” away.
In a Thursday, June 10 news report, the Catholic Bishops say the nationalization of schools and health institutions established by the Eritrean Catholic Church that started in 2019 is detrimental to the principles of justice.
“We, pastors and leaders of the Catholic Church in Eritrea, are deeply saddened and intimately hurt by the measures that the government is taking or has already taken by force, taking away from us the educational and health institutions that legitimately belong to us, and limiting our service to the country,” the Bishops have been quoted as saying in the Vatican News report.
Making reference to the Catholic Church in the country, the Catholic Bishops add that they “will never cease to demand the return of the social institutions forcibly taken from her and the right to perform all the services of which she has been deprived.”
“Let it be said without hesitation and without any qualms whatsoever once again to friends and non-friends alike: The schools and clinics confiscated or closed, or about to be confiscated or closed, are the legitimate property of the Catholic Church, built, established and organized in the supreme and exclusive interest of serving our people,” they say.