Priest labors alone in eastern Ethiopia
March 05, 2014
For seven years, a Spanish diocesan missionary priest, has been laboring alone in an eastern Ethiopian city, 700 miles from the nearest priest.
Describing the territory of Ogaden as a “totally Muslim area, mainly composed of ethnic Somali nomadic clans,” and “a very dangerous place,” Father Christopher Hartley Sartorios told the Fides news agency said that “I had planned to go to any place on earth where the nuns [Missionaries of Charity] did not have a house because there was no priest.”
“Now I am here alone, waiting for the arrival of the sisters of Mother Teresa,” he continued. “Almost every day I celebrate Mass alone or with up to three or four members. I am sure that the Lord wanted me here because I am a priest, and if there is no priest there is no Eucharist.”
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