Home News Kidnapped Indian priest released in Ethiopia

Kidnapped Indian priest released in Ethiopia

The abduction of Father Joshua Edakadambil of the Order of the Imitation of Christ was a case of "mistaken identity"

An Indian Catholic priest serving Ethiopia as a missionary was released January 22, a day after an armed gang kidnapped him, according to information reaching the Indian capital.

Father Joshua Edakadambil of the Order of the Imitation of Christ, or Bethany Ashram, was going to celebrate Mass in a mission station when the gang stopped his vehicle on the road.

They then took the 32-year-old priest to a forest and kept him in their custody, said Bishop Varghese Thottamkara, Vicar Apostolic of Nekemte in Ethiopia, a country in East Africa.



“The rebel soldiers, who took him for mistaken identity, released him after the Catholic Church negotiated mentioning his identity,” the Vincentian prelate told Matters India in an email message.

Bishop Thottamkara also said the Church is now trying to get back the priest’s pickup vehicle that was confiscated by the gang.

He said the missionary priest, who was ordained only two years ago, has returned home in good health.

Father Edakadambil, a native of Kerala, has been serving in Ethiopia’s Nekemte Apostolic Vicariate for the past two years.

- Newsletter -

The vicariate is directly under the Vatican, and not part of an ecclesiastical province.

The vicariate territory has followers of Ethiopian Orthodox, Islam and Coptic Catholicism.

Bishop Thottamkara, 62, came to Nekemte in 1990, after serving the Church in Odisha, eastern India, for several years.

Nekemte is about 320 km west of Addis Ababa, the national capital.

© Copyright LiCAS.news. All rights reserved. Republication of this article without express permission from LiCAS.news is strictly prohibited. For republication rights, please contact us at: [email protected]

Support Our Mission

We work tirelessly each day to tell the stories of those living on the fringe of society in Asia and how the Church in all its forms - be it lay, religious or priests - carries out its mission to support those in need, the neglected and the voiceless.
We need your help to continue our work each day. Make a difference and donate today.

Latest