If it’s really there, we ought to simply go and take it.
There aren’t too many places outside the USA that I would like to see, let alone in Africa but Ethiopia is an interesting place.
“Today this Church, and the people who have so lovingly protected and preserved it for so many centuries, is – like all the strains of Eastern Christianity – increasingly endangered. Muslims make up only one-third of the Ethiopian population, but they are in in recent years in Ethiopia (as in many other parts of the world) growing markedly more assertive and aggressive. In March 2011, a Muslim mob in Ethiopia burned down 69 churches and displaced thousands of people in riots triggered by rumors that a Christian had desecrated a copy of the Qur’an. Then last April, four Muslims went to Kale Hiwot church, a Protestant church in Worabe (a predominantly Muslim area of Ethiopia) and told the pastor, Abraham Abera, that one of his closest friends was seriously ill and that he should visit him immediately. Once they had convinced Abera to go with them, they turned on him and beat him to death. When his pregnant wife ran up to try to save him, they began beating her as well. One of the attackers made their motive clear, saying: “You (Christians) are growing in number in our area. You are spreading your message (the gospel). We will destroy you.” And in November, a mob of 500 Muslims, including policemen, shouted “Allahu akbar” (Allah is greatest) as they burnt down a church that they claimed had been built without the proper permits, although it had been standing on that spot for over sixty years.”
-—There are many worthy pilgrimage sites all over the world, but none can boast of anything approaching the Church of Ethiopia’s singular claim to fame: the Ark of the Covenant...-—
Really? How about Jesus’ burial cloth? Juan Diego’s tilma? The Eucharistic miracle of Lanciano? God’s not exactly holding out on us.
And this is a Catholic mag?
-—There are many worthy pilgrimage sites all over the world, but none can boast of anything approaching the Church of Ethiopia’s singular claim to fame: the Ark of the Covenant...-—
Really? How about Jesus’ burial cloth? Juan Diego’s tilma? The Eucharistic miracle of Lanciano? God’s not exactly holding out on us.
And this is a Catholic mag?
Ironically, the only ancient liturgical church that shares Fundamentalist Protestantism’s enthusiasm for Judaeo-chrstian syncretism and “Hebrew roots” is the Ethiopian Church. The Ethiopians also claim to be the only chrstian church totally free of the heresy of Marcionism.
Since the author has access to Maccabees (part of the Catholic canon), he should know that the Ark is hidden until Christ gathers his flock at the end.
Relax, its in a warehouse in Nevada.
“stone tablets of the original Ten Commandments that were written atop Mount Sinai by the Finger of God”
The “finger of God” tablets were smashed into pieces by an enraged Moses at the base of the golden calf. Moses later went up onto a mountain and had to rewrite the laws onto tablets in his own hand, though still receiving the laws from God. So which tablets would be in the Ark...the broken fragments and/or the ones written in Moses’ own hand?