The Patriarch of Egypt’s Orthodox Church, Pope Shenouda III, had visited Ethiopia over the weekend and told Ato Gebremedhin (formerly Aba Paulos) that he and other officials of the church are holding office to serve the people, to be responsible for their wellbeing, not to have authority over them.
The Pope, who is loved and respected by Ethiopian Christians, was received at the Bole Airport on Friday, April 11, by the fake pope, Aba Gebremedhin, who is a Woyanne cadre.
Ethiopia’s legitimate patriarch is currently in exile after being forced out of the country by the gun-totting former Aba Paulos.
On Sunday, Ato Gebremedhin took Pope Shenouda to Holy Trinity Cathedral Church in Addis Ababa. It was here that Egypt’s Pope chided Ato Gebremedhin by reminding him that he is a servant of the people, and that when people are abused, become hungry, and poor, “you religious leaders have the responsibility to act.”
Pope Shenouda also said church officials must always remember that they are holding office to serve the people, not for the sake of having authority over the people. The thousands of people who were at the church responded to the pope’s comment with laud cheers and gestures of appreciation. That might have been an uncomfortable moment for the Woyanne cadre and real estate developer posing as Ethiopia’s pope.
Pope Shenouda also said that Mengisu Hailemariam had disrupted the historical and close relationship between the Ethiopian and the Egyptian Orthodox churches, but, he added, “God bless him where he is.” The audience erupted in loud cheers and applause, it seems, just to let the current rulers know that they are worse than the Derg.
The pope spoke in English as Mulugeta Asrate-Kassa translated to Amharic. But most people understood what the Pope was saying and did not wait for the tongue-tied translator to react to his sermon.
The 84-year old Pope Shenouda is the spiritual leader of Egypt’s 9.5 million Orthodox Christians.
18 thoughts on “Egypt’s Pope Shenouda chides Ato Gebremedhin”
May God bless the frank and honest Pope Shinoda. We have special heart to our Coptic brothers and sisters; where ever I meet one of them they are always happy to see me and lend me a hand if necessary.
Hey Elias. I don’t know where you get this story. This is what his holiness said at the church.
Speech by His Holines Pope Shinoda III in Addis Ababa Holy Trinity Cathedral
His Holiness the brother Abune Paulos, the Patriarch of Ethiopia and Arch Bishop of Axume,
All my brothers,
The metropolitans and the Bishops of the Ethiopian Church,
Our Dear Ambassador of Egypt,
I greet you in the Name of God. I am very glad to see Ethiopia after about 34 years.
Some differences and misunderstandings began from the time of Mengistu. But we thank God you could get rich of all these proverbs. Our relation with the Ethiopian Church returns to the year 329, when pope Athanasius of Alexandaria sent for you the first bishop for Ethiopia. That means more than 16 centuries ago. And we were together. We are one faith. We are the same orthodoxy and the same teaching of our Lord. We were together in many feels especially in the world council of churches and I am glad that his holiness Abune Paulos is one of the president of the world council of the Churches. I took this responsibility about twenty years ago so we are working the same feels my visit to Ethiopia Church. Today is only a beginning, is a start, is so deep relation of the future God willing. I am pleased that Ethiopia is flourishing in many feels. I was glad to see the new Addis Ababa with new buildings, which I didn’t see before in my first visit. And also the airport is new, every thing is new, and our relation is new also. We were pleased on Abune Paulos visited Egypt. We welcomed him in a very deep way. And we are happy to come here also, to see the same people all of them are brothers.
I thank our sons who give us the ceremony of their prayer. When I meet some of the Ethiopians, I am quite sure that there are our sons and I have deep feelings for them.
I invite you to visit Egypt. If you can, this is for the whole population. In Egypt you see the relics of saint Mark and the relics of saint Athanasius. And you can take blessing of these relics. All of us are the sons of Saint Mark. Every where many of them our Cathedral have the title of Saint Mark Church. The first church we established in London, England, it is Saint Mark Church. The first Church we established in America, in Canada is Saint Mark Church. The first Church we established in Kenya also saint Mark Church. We love Saint Mark. And all of us are sons of Saint Mark.
We thank Saint Mark because he evangelized us and came to give us the word of God and Christian faith. And he became martyr in Egypt.
And Egypt has a privilege of having the blood of Saint Mark on epigrams. Egypt also my Sons and daughters and my brothers visited by the holy family, by our Lord Jesus Christ, and Saint Mary. In the past and fourthy years ago Saint marry appear on the dooms of the Church of Saint Marry Zaytun.
We love you and we want to do our best in every thing we can do for you. You may order and you will be executive. I am glad with the building of the theological college. I wish it will be full of students and teachers. And I brought for you an example of teachers I was glad also when I came here and so many of Sunday schools teachers and Sons all around the place. I wish that Sunday schools may be successful in its work. You see in our church we have pastoral care for every child from the very beginning of his life and have care for him as far as he grows in his ages. In Cairo alone we have more than 30,000 Sunday school teachers. In some of our huge Churches we have the same Church about three hundred teachers.
And these teachers are male and female. And in our Seminaries we have students male and female. Because the mother if she is educated in theology in the Bible in the teaching of the church she can be great benefit for her children and for the area in which she lives.
We want pastoral care for every body. Because in the last day God will ask us for every body what can we say for you we are only the servants of your churches where ever in Egypt.
Saint Augustans once in his prayers said, “O God I teach these people but in front of you I am only a student. I take teaching from you to give them and what you gave me I give them. I am the shepherd of these people but in front of you I am only a sheep. You shepherd me and shepherd them. This is our work to be servants of the people. Once some people came from America and asked me about our work in priest hood. I said to him to such person our work is not authority but responsibility. You can understand it. And every authority we take from God is how to do our responsibility. Responsibility is for every child, for every body, for every man, for every woman, for every youth. The build the kingdom of God and let people inter this kingdom. Here in order to inter the kingdom of God in heaven. May God bless all of you and may God bless our two Churches.
And may God give us His Holy Spirit to abide in our heart and to abide our thinking in order to do His will commence through the intercession all the sense Amen.
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This may be part of what he said, but not every thing, according to an eyewitness account. For example, the reference to Mengistu in this version.- Elias
elias, the above video window dont work.
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Mesfin, the server is busy because too many people are accessing it at the same time. Try again later. Thanks. – Elias
You may watch the video @
http://www.amcoptic.com/n2008/pope-shenouda-visit-ethiopia-2008.htm
Holy father Pop Shenouda God bless you, you are a true sheperd. thank you for visiting Ethiopia.
Dear Elias, don’t be surprised if His Holiness Pope Shenoda wishes the best for Mangistu H/Mariam. Because unlike you and me, he loves all people as God say “even love your enemy”. But you and me with no power we have, we used to take of the names given to people. I hope you learned something from His Holiness’s spiritual message.
Lib yisten.
We Ethiopians are very happy for your visit to Ethiopia, your Holiness Pope Shenoda. Hope our two churches will have a better relationship for our spiritual growth.
Thank you very much.
Dear Elias thank you for your information about Abune Shenouda III visit. It was great bless for us. Elias I have some comments on your email. For all things our Almigty God have times. Every thing happen in will of Him. So how you use this very Teyaf qal ‘Ato’ for the patriac. I am not saying there is no problem, but if you are christain it is not good for you. Just think who am I ? to write this word?
thank you
Egziabher Agrachinn yitebk
elias the current pope is better than the past
I thought the pope, priest, prime minister, lawyer, judge, prosecutor, murderer, economist, scientist, farmer, and above all super Ethiopian are Meles and his wife.
Speech by His Holines Pope Shinoda III in Addis Ababa Holy Trinity Cathedral: “I am the shepherd of these people but in front of you I am only a sheep. You shepherd me and shepherd them. This is our work to be servants of the people.”
God Bless your Holiness Pope Shinoda III !
But Aba Paulos, the Patriarch of Weyane and Arch Bishop of Axume is a wolf in sheep’s clothing!
Egzabeher hoy ye dehawen hizb seqay beqah belew!
Aba Paulos should not be a spiritual leader of the country when he is equaly sinful as Catholic sex offenders
http://oromantic.wordpress.com/2008/04/17/god-damn-abyssinia-rev-dr-right/
Listen to Rev. Dr. “Right”
What a blasphmoues article. Completely devoid of respect to Ethiopian elders. What does the writer get out of this perevertion. personal gratification? for what? Thank God at the end we are all dead.
Pope Shenouda vs. Abune Paulos
Pope Shenouda, the great religious leader of our time is very respected even among muslims, let me tell you this story, I don’t know when but one time, a muslim man took a Coptic Christian girl by force and married her by converting her into Islam without her consent (this story is by no means offense to muslims as there are people who act trespassing their religion laws), and His Holiness Pope Shenouda was told, he tried to make her free by approaching government leaders to no avail then he announced that he can’t be a Pope to the great Church if he can’t save this girl, puts down his robes and gets into a cave where the hermits live, then the government officials including President Mubarak got shocked, the politics got in problems, the US condemned the Egyptian government for the negligence. President Mubarak personally apologized to the Pope and freed the girl and Pope Shenouda reinstated himself to the position he left and to the position he fits as the leader of this great Church. He sacrificed his positions in the world for the sake of one poor girl and its easy to guess what he would do if something happens to his people. God is so great that He gave a great leader for the Christian minorities in a country where the government is dominated by fundamentalist muslims. Our country Ethiopia has proved to the world that Christians and Muslims can live together in harmony and its not a challenge for the religious leaders to lead their people in peace but instead both leaders of the two largest religions are already challenges to their people while they were supposed to stand against the challenges their people face. Both leaders, Abune Paulos and the muslim Shiek whom I can’t recall his name are now defending woyanne. God, history and their own souls will put these men infront of the eternal justice for what they are doing. Christians and muslims must pray for the future of Ethiopia and demise of woyanne and to give us great religious leaders to lead us not into temptations but peaceful life that can make our Lord proud for Creating us. That is what our Lord Jesus Christ thought us, the great commandment of all next to worshiping him and that is “LOVE”. And Jesus not only thought us this great law but He proved it by His death for the good of human kind and resurrected for our harmony. As a Christian leader, Abune Paulos, please, don’t only teach your people about Christ our Lord but show us by deeds how to live in love and denial of self, show us in deeds that money and positions in the society are nothing infront of God but being true to the people and to ourselves. Ask yourself if you have really accomplished your responsibilities as you are sitting in a position where once the great Saint Abune Tekle-Haimanot who founded Debre Libanos have sat. Remember the day you wanted to become a monk, was it because you knew you would become a Pope of this great Church? Or out of the love for our Lord Jesus Christ? Was it because you knew you will be a Pope like John Paul of the Catholics and enjoy the life that comes with it or was it because you wanted to be become like St. Mekarious (Mekars in geez) or St. Anthonious (Intons in geez) the great monk and hermit in the deserts of Egypt? What do you feel when you are not loved by your own people while we loved our Egyptian father? Has anyone during your sermons ever applauded you after your speech? And see what happened when Pope Shenouda spoke? And how the people gathered just to see him and the reactions after they saw him. I beseech you by the name of our Holy Church and by the Bones of the Saints who have died for our Churches and monasteries most of them located in Tigray and the monasteries in the jungles of the south guarded by animals and hermits and above all, by the sacrifice of our beloved God Jesus Christ who founded our faith by His Holy Blood and by the Love of His Mother, the Virgin Mary whom we and our ancestors have loved to death, please ask yourself about what you did for your people and Church. Ask yourself if you have defended your Church and people more than you defended the illegitimate government led by Meles. Remember what Abune Tekle Haimanot did during the Derg regime, a Pope of the same position you have now, he never wore a shoe, he never had a shoe made of gold as you have, he never had entourage of luxury vehicles but look at you. He never even wore a flashy robe among Popes and Presidents in international meetings, even his rosary was very old and like the poor monks in Debre Libanos have. Thank you for your time and I ask the great forgiveness of my Lord God for writing this for I am a sinner myself who is no better than the great sinner in this secular world.
ANOnymous, you must be the son of that bloody banda asrat kassa. mulugeta asrat, the well known thief on earth, who claims to be the memeber of royal families. We know very well the egyptian’s coptic orthodox church’s holiest fathers all over the world, they are true spiritual fathers. God bless them all. ato gebermedehen, the racist and narrow minded man who kept his son in jamacia has been destroying this anncient ethiopian orthodox church. he is a protestant, not orthodox. he had graduated from protestant theology college in USA and promised them to convert ethiopia’s orthodox church. he has burned so many churches and gedams. not so long ago the asebot gedam is his victim. but God will punish this shameless and mentally sick man. Thanks again pope shenoudo. after the victory, we will join our church with the egypt under his leadership. i do not trust any hodams from ethiopia’s orthodox churches. there are so many pigs [the so called aba, priests and diakons] who are looting ethiopia’s orthodox churches for the last 17 years along with ato gebermedehen both inside and outside.
I find it very ironic that Mr Mulugeta Asrate Kasa was translating for the pope as he was evicted from the Ethiopian orthodox church here in London. The reason being, he stole money from the church’s account. It is the truth every church going Ethiopian know in London. I know that he is now buddy buddy with the current regime in Ethiopia. But, then again they are all the same. They may help each other in plundering the country’s riches.
As far as I am concerned, he is the lowest of all. Stealing from the house of faith is an absolute no! no!
What Patriarch Shenouda is telling to the Ethiopian people is that Jesus Christ came to this world to serve the people, not to be served by the people; therefore, Abune Paulos and Meles Seitanawi have the greatest responsibilities to meet the demands and interests of the Ethiopian citizens, not just the interests of their clicks.
Jesus served the weak, the hungry, the sick, and the destitute by going from village to village, and from town to town, seven days a week and 24 hours a day. Meles has traveled all over the world to serve his own interests and the interests of his own political gangs; he traveled to Washington, London, and other great cities to put in order the millions of dollars he pilfered from the Ethiopian tax payers and the rest of the money he possessed by land sales and gold sales. So, his services to the Ethiopian people are insignificant compared to the services other democratically elected leaders have contributed to their own people.
On the other hand, Abune Paulos has totally failed to emulate the example of Jesus who served the people of this world freely until he left this earth. In fact, Abune Paulos invites people whom he likes to his house, but Jesus goes to the people’s house, stays with them, eats with them, shares their problems, and pardons their sins. We can clearly see how worldly Abune Paulos is when we look at the magnificent building he has built for rent just recently; on the contrast, when one day a lawyer asked Jesus to follow him, this is what Jesus said: “Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head” (Matthew 8:20). Yes, Abune Paulos, one of these foxes, have home bigger than the foxes’ holes, so, he is a worldly man, not a spiritual one, who wants to be served by the Ethiopian people rather than he to serve them.
Memere, nice info, thank you, so its like when someone does something wrong against Ethiopia and the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, then he/she will be granted the blessings of Meles and Abune Paulos? And the riches that come along? Amazing. That’s what I am seeing about the latest lovey-dovey I see between Asrate Kassa’s son Mekonnen and Meles and the gang, he was also at the Meskel Celebration in Addis as an interpretor. After all those years in England, the english he speaks is disgusting and its a shame the only open space they could find him is in the translation sector. I wonder how much they are paying him to humiliate himself and his family’s name a family belonged to the great Emperor Yohannes. The Emperor’s bone must be shivering in the grave when his grandson turned out to be a shame to the Church and to the country he died for. SHAME ON YOU MEKONNEN ASRATE KASSA
not only mulugeta asrate a thief, all his father and ground father were a thieves. his father was killede by derg. mulugeta took his father to jail by his car and in the evening he announced by TV about his father’s arrestment. such a low level banda.