Mandatory military service in Eritrea deprives Church of seminarians
(Vatican Radio) Government requirements in Eritrea requiring Catholic and Orthodox
seminarians to serve in the military are depriving the Church in the region of pastoral
care, says a report by the humanitarian agency, Aid to the Church in Need. Some seminarians,
as well as lay Catholic workers, have been kept in military service for more than
10 years. Even though seminarians were technically exempt from military service between
2008 and 2011, reports received by Aid to the Church in Need show that many conscripted
in 2008 were still in training camps. Those who have refused military service are
among more than 2,000 Christians currently imprisoned for their religious beliefs.
Vatican
Radio spoke with Aid to the Church in Need’s Dr John Newton about the consequences
of required military conscription for the Church in Eritrea. The military conscription
not only effects seminarians, he said, but also lay people “who take pastoral roles
in the Church, be it people who have a social capacity or a pastoral capacity or a
catechetical capacity, that a lot of younger people who are doing these sorts of roles
are just not there anymore to be doing the service of the Church.”
“You’re
trying to run parishes without catechists, without people doing the social work that
the Church does, and – yes – without the seminarians there to help out the priests.”
“It’s
a very difficult situation in the country,” Newton continued, asking for prayers that
the Church be allowed to function in the region.
Listen to Ann Schneible’s
full interview with Aid to the Church in Need’s Dr John Newton: