Menghesteab Tesfamariam
Menghesteab Tesfamariam is, as metropolitan archbishop of the Archeparchy of Asmara, the head of the Eritrean Catholic Church. Ordained as a priest of the Comboni Missionaries of the Heart of Jesus on 18 February 1979, he was appointed as Bishop of Asmara on 25 June 2001, and ordained on 16 September. On June 30, 2011, in a speech in Nairobi, he proposed the establishment of a new scholarship fund in each diocese in the Association of Member Episcopal Conferences in Eastern Africa region to provide assistance to under-privileged students. In January 2015 Pope Francis established the Eritrean Catholic Church as an autonomous sui iuris Eastern Catholic Church, thus separating it from the Ethiopian Catholic Church. At the same time he elevated the Eparchy of Asmara to the dignity of an Archeparchy and named Menghesteab Tesfamariam as the head of the new church.
