Ian Campbell - Holy War: The Untold Story of Catholic Italys Crusade Against the Ethiopian Orthodox Church

HOLY WAR

IAN CAMPBELL

Holy War

The Untold Story of Catholic Italys
Crusade Against the Ethiopian
Orthodox Church

HURST & COMPANY, LONDON

First published in the United Kingdom in 2021 by

C. Hurst & Co. (Publishers) Ltd.,

83 Torbay Road, London, NW6 7DT

Copyright Ian Campbell, 2021

All rights reserved.

Printed in India

The right of Ian Campbell to be identified as the author of this publication is asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988.

Distributed in the United States, Canada and Latin America by Oxford University Press, 198 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016, United States of America.

A Cataloguing-in-Publication data record for this book is available from the British Library.

ISBN: 9781787384774

www.hurstpublishers.com

By the same author

The Plot to Kill Graziani:
The Attempted Assassination of Mussolinis Viceroy

The Massacre of Debre LibanosEthiopia, 1937:
The Story of One of Fascisms Most Shocking Atrocities

The Addis Ababa Massacre:
Italys National Shame

This book is dedicated to the memory of
Richard Keir Pethick Pankhurst

CONTENTS

PART ONE
PRELUDE

PART TWO
A HOLY WAR

PART THREE
A STRIKE AT THE HEART

PART FOUR
ONWARD, CHRISTIAN SOLDIERS

PART FIVE
AN IGNOMINIOUS END

Figure 1: In 1540, papal confidants Father Tesfa Seyon of the monastery of Debre Libanos and Filippo Archinto, Vicar-General of Rome, stand behind the throne of Pope Paul III, who is receiving from Ignatius of Loyola legal documents founding the Society of Jesus.

Figure 2: The centre panel of a 15th-century Ethiopian triptych, depicting the Seven Archangels (holding swords) surrounding the Virgin Mary, the Christ Child, St. Peter and St, Paul. The theme of the Seven Archangels was, and still is, canonical only in the Ethiopian Orthodox Church.

Figure 3: Tesfa Seyon of Debre Libanos was one of the founders of Italys cavernous state church, the basilica of Santa Maria degli Angeli e dei Martiri, which was designed and built by Michelangelo in the ruined frigidarium of the Baths of Diocletian, Rome. Above the main altar is mounted the basilicas most important painting, depicting the Seven Archangels.

Figure 4: This wall painting of the Holy Virgin with the Seven Archangels painted in 18th-century Ethiopian style can be seen today in the church of St Tekle Haymanot at Azezo, Gondar, to which the monastery of Debre Libanos temporarily relocated in the 16th century.

Figure 5: The church of St Tekle Haymanot at Debre Libanos built by Emperor Menelik over the tomb of the Saint, and seen here before the Italian invasion, had long been one of Ethiopias most revered pilgrimage sites. In May 1937 Marshal Graziani would order the massacre of the clergy and congregation of the monastery church.

Figure 6: The Catholic Cathedral of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, completed in 1933 with the encouragement and direct support of the Ethiopian government, bears witness to the high standing of the Catholic Church in Ethiopia before the Italian invasion.

Figure 7: In the summer of 1935, Pius XI, who was on the papal throne before and during the invasion of Ethiopia, declared Ethiopian Orthodox Christians to be heretics, thus designating them Enemies of the Faith. Although shortly afterwards he suggested that the planned attack might not be a Just War, he made no serious efforts to moderate pro-Fascist Italian clergy who were actively promoting the invasion.

Figure 8: Crusaders under divine protection: The publication of picture-postcards of Christ hovering above the invading forces to guide them into Ethiopia reinforced the message that the invasion had the blessing of the Catholic Church, and would take Italians to their promised land.

Figure 9: The Mother of Christ in the service of Fascism: Installed in a number of Italian churches, the popular Madonna of the Manganello, wielding the Fascist club, or bludgeon, was named Patroness of the Squadristi.

Figure 10: Father Reginaldo Giuliani, a well known Catholic priest seen here in his Blackshirt uniform, was an ardent Fascist who held the Ethiopian Church in contempt. Regarded almost as a saint after his death in action with a Blackshirt battalion during the war of invasion, the Italian administration of occupied Addis Ababa would name a street after him.

Figure 11: Shortly before the October 1935 invasion of Ethiopia, Emperor Haile Selassie (in white, right) leaves the cathedral of St. George in Addis Ababa after attending prayers for peace.

Figure 12: During the invasin, Liul-Ras Kassa Haylu, a distinguished member of the royal family and sacristan of the monastery of Debre Libanos, was in command of Ethiopias armies at the northern war-front.

Figure 13: The Italian troops frequently displayed impunity in photographing their atrocities and distributing the photographs widely during the invasion and occupation of Ethiopia.