During today’s General Audience, September 8, 2021, Pope Francis called for the New Year in Ethiopia to be “a time of fraternity and solidarity in which we listen to the common desire for peace.”

In fact, the Holy Father mentioned that next “September 11 Ethiopia will celebrate the New Year. I extend my warmest and most affectionate greeting to the Ethiopian people, especially those that are suffering as a consequence of the ongoing conflict and the serious humanitarian situation it has caused.” Hence, he hoped that this will “be a time of fraternity and solidarity in which we listen to the common desire for peace.”

“Vatican News” stated that, according to some analysts, Ethiopia is witnessing the disintegration of the country, the fratricidal war that confronts the government troops with the militias of Tigray’s Popular Liberation Front, whose objective is Addis Ababa. Arriving in the midst of this is news of murders, violations, humiliations, in a word, violence, the reason for Pope Francis’ concern.

In today’s General Audience, held in Paul VI Hall, the Pontiff continued the series of catecheses on Saint Paul’s Letter to the Galatians, and he focused his meditation on the theme: “We are children of God” (cf. Reading: Galatians 3:26-29). The Holy Father stressed that the foundation of true equality among all the members of the human family is the divine filiation acquired in Baptism, the reason why it’s necessary that we know the date in which this milestone occurred, which we celebrate every year.

Translation by Virginia M. Forrester