Father Tesfaye Tadesse Gebresilasie, Superior General of the Comboni Missionaries, was appointed Auxiliary Bishop of the Archeparchy of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, by Pope Francis on 6th November.
As the Auxiliary Bishop of Addis Ababa, Pope Francis has assigned the Bishop-elect the titular See of Cleopatris, Alexandria, Egypt, and will work with Berhaneyesus Demerew Cardinal Souraphiel a member of the Congregation of the Mission (CM) and the Local Ordinary of the same Metropolitan See.
Msgr. Tesfaye was born in Harar on 22 September 1969, joined the Comboni Missionaries in 1986, and was ordained a priest on 26 August 1995 in Addis Ababa.
He holds a licentiate in Theology from the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome and a diploma in Islamic Studies from the Pontifical Institute of Arabic and Islamic Studies, also in Rome. He continued his Islamic studies at the Dar Comboni for Arabic Studies in Cairo and attended a formation course at the Salesian Pontifical University in Rome.
The bishop-elect has served in various positions, including deputy parish priest and director of the Comboni School in Haro Wato (2001), provincial counsellor of the Combini Missionaries in Ethiopia (2002-2004), provincial of the Comboni Missionaries in Ethiopia and president of the Conference of Religious Major Superiors of Ethiopia (2005), and coordinator of the Confederation of Conferences of Major Superiors of Africa and Madagascar (2013).
In 2015, he was elected Superior General at the 18th General Chapter; at the 19th General Chapter (2022) he was confirmed as Superior General for a second term.
From 2017 to 2022 he was President of SEDOS and from 2018 to 2021 he was a member of the Executive Council of the USG (Union of Superiors General). He also took part in the first and second sessions of the Synod on Synodality in Rome (October 2023 and October 2024) as an elected delegate of the USG.
