The Capuchins and Salesians Work to Save Catholic Charities in Ethiopia

Agenzia Fides reported in its August 31, 2018 issue, that an industrial bakery will be opened in 2019, with a laboratory, a school for bakers and a store.

The benefits will go to schools, orphanages and clinics run by the Catholic Church in the country. This initiative came from the Apostolic Vicar, Bishop Angelo Pagano.

This Capuchin friar, ordained a bishop and nominated apostolic vicar of Harar after serving as a missionary in Ethiopia and Cameroon, found himself face to face with a vast and complex network of charities that are difficult to maintain because of their financial obligations.

In the past several years, the habit of eating European bread has spread throughout the country. That is what the Apostolic Vicar is counting on.

“Bishop Pagano,” explained Matteo Circosta of the Missionary Center of the Capuchin Friars of Lombardy to Agenzia Fides, “has asked us to help him to realize the project of creating an industrial bakery run by local students who will be formed on site. So we got involved and asked the help of Cesare Marinoni, former president of the Milanese bakers, and of the professional Salesian school of Cinisello Balsamo.”

The Vicariate of Harar has made a building in one of the main streets of Dire Dawa, in the east of the country, available. The project will create jobs for eleven bakers and form young apprentices in the trade. The proceeds will finance many Catholic orphanages, schools and clinics throughout the country.

Would to Heaven the Catholic Church would also worry about providing souls with the Bread of the Angels and the food of the strong, the Holy Eucharist in its centuries-old rite!