An eye-witness to the collusion of the Vatican and Mussolini’s adventure in Ethiopia

January 7, 2014

            Since the 1880’s, the Italians had had their
eyes on Ethiopia, or Abyssinia, (as it was called) however; Emperor Menelik’s forces decisively deflected their attempts
at colonization. The Battle of Adowa of 1896 and its victory brought Ethiopia
to international attention. Europe for the first time acknowledged an African
nation that had resisted and defeated an European
power. By 1923, Ethiopia became a member of the League of Nations.

            Ras
Teferi Makonnen, the then
Regent of Ethiopia, set out on an international tour, visiting Jerusalem,
Cairo, Alexandria, Brussels, Amsterdam, Stockholm, London, Geneva, and Athens.
Il Duce Mussolini who felt the humiliation of the Italian defeat by the Ethiopians and the respectful reception that
Regent Haile Selassie received, especially by those countries who were allies
of Italy and the wide publicity and admiration he was being accorded humiliated
Mussolini’s and increased his desire for revenge. But to camouflage the
indignity, Il Duce invited Ras Teferi the Regent to
stay at the Villa Torlonia, making it appear as if
Ethiopia were under the Italian protectorate and that he enjoyed an indirect
influence!

             In the meantime the Lateran Pact
signed by Mussolini and a Vatican representative on 11 February 1929, had three
significant parts: (1) a political advantage (giving the Vatican its own
micro-state), (2) a financial convention (giving the Vatican reparations)
and (3) a concordat (giving privileges within Italy, letting
the Church influence public education). In return for all of this,
Mussolini received Vatican recognition over the Kingdom of
Italy — of which he happened to be the “dictator.”
Mussolini achieved a great diplomatic success; perhaps the greatest of his
career to have boosted his future adventure to avenge Italy’s historical
humiliation at the battle of Adowa.

            By
February 1934, Mussolini had indicated to his General De Bono his intentions to
conquer Ethiopia and avenge Italy’s defeat at Adowa. The Vatican on the
“Day of Faith” in 1935, actively supported
the war effort by helping Mussolini in his nation-wide drive to collect
financial aid and active support of the Church to colonize Ethiopia. This Pact
is a building mortar that gave Mussolini the unfettered license in his colonial
venture. It effectively not only silenced the Vatican in condemning the various
and continuous atrocities of Fascist Italy; but also the use of the poison gas.
The brutal savagery of the Fascist colonizers in Christian Ethiopia was not
only condoned but; abated by Vatican leaders. Vatican came to Ethiopia with an
evangelizing mission!

As a recruit seminarian, on my way to Harrer and later to Figan Birra in the training to priesthood¹ my experience of Italian apartheid was tacitly supported and tolerated by the Catholic priest: whom I had considered protector of human rights and my role model. I had assumed my priest had the moral fortitude to defend me . He failed me miserably and injected an early doubt to what I thought the Church its servants ought to have. This impression at a formative age of 91 left its permanent mark in my life.

            On
19 February 1937, Marshal Rodolfo Graziani held an outdoor ceremony to honor
the birth of Prince Umberto’s son. Two Eritrean patriots threw seven or
eight bombs at Graziani and his entourage, wounding the viceroy and thirty
others whereupon Graziani’s  guards shot down numerous people then
and there  and the Italian army and
police went rampaging all over the city searching the native quarters for
hidden arms and killing everyone in sight 
throughout Addis Ababa. The secretary of the Fascist Party in Addis
Ababa, Guido Cortese, called for more drastic action, and for 48 hours the Italians
massacred Ethiopians, burning their homes and businesses and looting their
property with no restraint whatsoever. I was out with my nanny in search of my
father as to his whereabouts. On our way, I saw several dead bodies on the
street just before we were imprisoned with other 3000 prisoners. After three
days of this traumatic experience, women and children were released. I was one of them². As regard to the other prisoners of more than 3000 people what happened to them is a question that is better left to historians. Thousands were killed indiscriminately throughout the city. As someone who professed the Catholic faith and no voice of protest from the Vatican had confirmed my conviction that the Vatican and Mussolini were the same colonizers.

In my later schooling at Akaki Seventh
Day Adventist School, the classes were conducted after a prayer and we were
assigned to memorize a chapter or a verse from the Bible. But some of us coming
from other Christian denominations were not in conformity with the teaching of
the Seventh Day Adventist School. This created some confusion, but at the same
time enabled me to better evaluate my own religious perspective. The Seventh
Day believed the end of the world was approaching, and that the number 666 in
the Book of Daniel Revelation referred to the Pope! Although their teaching did
not convert me, they did make me less of a zealot and more tolerant and
skeptical about religious practices and teaching³. My later College and university training and education have enabled me to
evaluate my own religion rationally without prejudice.