Vatican and Mussolini’s Invasion of Ethiopia
St Mary's of Zion
Throughout history the Vatican has asserted it power through secular armies, but none so recent during the invasion of Africa by Italian forces in 1935.
Why would the Vatican be so interested in Ethiopia?
Ethiopia, with its long, rich history of Judaism and Christianity, claimed to possess the one artifact most desired by all the major religions, the Ark of the Covenant. How can the Vatican justify itself as the representative of Christianity if the world’s Holiest artifact still remained in the possession of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church?
Mussolini was wanting to expand and extend into the resource rich continent of Ethiopia. With blessing of the Catholic Church he would be seen as hero to the local people in Italy to do the bidding of the Vatican. Of course the Pope would not give formal approval, but the Archbishop of Torano was quoted as saying:
“The war against Ethiopia should be considered as a holy war, a crusade to open Ethiopia, a country of infidels and schismatics, to the expansion of the Catholic Faith.”
Ethiopian Cleverness
The Ethiopian Orthodox Church has a long history of moving the Ark for safe keeping. After residing in the Lake Tana Islands for more than 800 years, it was eventually moved to Axum in 333. On multiple occasions when the Ark was threatened it was put into hiding, in locations such as:
1. Lake Tana Islands
2. Gonder
3. In the caves of the Semien mountains
4. Shewa
5. Zeway Islands
And as expected, Ethiopian religious officials claim the Ark was moved from Axum during the Italian occupation. To make matters even more confusing there are supposedly 100 exact copies in locations throughout Ethiopia.
Still the Italian forces in Ethiopia left no stone unturned. Some estimates state over 1 million Ethiopians were killed, which included over 300 clergy killed, 2,000 churches destroyed along with 525,000 homes and 14 million head of livestock. Official records do not indicate that the original Ark of the Covenant was found during the occupation.
Today
The Ethiopian Orthodox Church is one of the oldest direct lineage churches in existence today. The Ethiopian Orthodox Church has every right to call itself the original Christian faith just as much as the Roman Catholics.
The Ark the Covenant is presumably held in St. Mary’s of Zion in Axum, and is still the crown jewel of Biblical artifacts today.