Date: Wednesday, 28 May 2025
By Devin Watkins
Several members of the press, along with bishops, priests, religious men and women, and lay faithful, were treated to a performance of liturgical choral chants in the Ge‘ez language in the Vatican on Tuesday evening.
The Pontifical Ethiopian College, which sits inside the Vatican Gardens, hosted a presentation of the new edition of the Ge‘ez-language Missal to be used by the Eastern Catholic Churches of Ethiopia and Eritrea.
Curated under the guidance of the Dicastery for the Eastern Churches, the Missal—a liturgical book containing instructions and texts for the celebration of Mass—showcases the importance of a shared liturgical text for the faithful of the Horn of Africa. Ge‘ez is an ancient South Semitic language that continues to be used as a liturgical language in the Ethiopian and Eritrean Catholic and Orthodox Churches.
Speaking at the event, Cardinal Claudio Gugerotti, Prefect of the Dicastery for the Eastern Churches, said the updated Ge‘ez Missal offers an “instrument for prayer” for the people of Eritrea and Ethiopia.
He said the Liturgical Office of the Dicastery has for many decades produced texts that have served the Eastern Churches. The Cardinal added that this tradition is “crowned” with the production of the Ge‘ez Missal, calling it a “source of that ability to survive and to dream that lies at the root of a people’s existence.”
For the first time, the Ge‘ez Missal includes annotations for liturgical chant, and calls for the Eucharist to be celebrated with freshly-baked, leavened bread, symbolizing the freshness of the Body of Christ.
Both the Eritrean and Ethiopian Catholic Churches set up commissions to edit the Ge‘ez Missal, which a commission member said was one of the only examples of collaboration between Ethiopia and Eritrea in recent years.
Bishop Tesfasellassie Medhin, Bishop of Ethiopian Catholic Eparchy of Adigrat in Ethiopia, welcomed the Ge‘ez Missal, saying it will serve as a source of unity among the Churches in Ethiopia and Eritrea.
“In the most difficult moments, when the Mass is celebrated in union of spirit, it gives inner joy, strength, and hope,” he said.
“Undifferentiated identity is not something God has given us,” said Bishop Tesfasellassie. “We have diversity in our Churches, and this holy Mass to be celebrated according to the new Missal will serve as a sacred tool that we hope to faithfully implement in our respective eparchies.”
Speaking to Vatican News afterwards, Bishop Tesfasellassie underlined the unity of the Eritrean and Ethiopian Catholic Churches, despite the political hinderances that make it difficult to collaborate.
“We have no division,” he said. “Our liturgy, our patrimony, and liturgical history has never had division.”
At the end of the presentation, Cardinal Gugerotti officially presented the Missal to Bishops representing the Ethiopian and Eritrean Catholic Churches.
Among them was Bishop Kindane Yebio, Bishop of Keren in Eritrea, who told Vatican News’ Isabella H. de Carvalho that the Missal took 25 years to perfect, as it drew heavily on ancient source material and study of previous Ge‘ez Missals.
“This book will become a source of union for the Catholic Church itself, because until now we have celebrated in different ways,” said Bishop Yebio. “From now on, we hope we will all follow this book.”
In a statement, Cardinal Berhaneyesus Souraphiel, Archbishop of Addis Ababa, thanked the commission members for their work to produce the Ge‘ez Missal and the Dicastery for the Eastern Churches for "facilitating the printing and distribution of the New Missal" in Ethiopia and Eritrea, as well as the benefactors who made it possible.
Pope Leo XIV upheld the Eastern rites in the communion of the Catholic Church during his recent audience with participants of the Jubilee of Eastern Churches on May 14, 2025.
“The Church needs you,” said the Pope. “The contribution that the Christian East can offer us today is immense!”
