Abune Paulos (born Gebremedhin Woldeyohannes; 3 November 1936 – 16 August 2012)[1] was the fifth Patriarch of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church from 1992 to his death in 2012.
Then known as Abba Gebre Medhin, he continued his education at the Theological College of the Holy Trinity in Addis Ababa under the patronage of Patriarch Abune Tewophilos.
[2] In 1974, his education was interrupted by a summons from Patriarch Abune Tewophilos, and returned to Addis Ababa shortly after the revolution that toppled Emperor Haile Selassie.
[citation needed] Following the fall of the Derg in 1991, the then Patriarch of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church, Abuna Merkorios, was dethroned in circumstances that remain under dispute.
[citation needed] In 1995, Abuna Paulos asked for the faithful to fulfill their religious obligations by contributing their share to the restoration of Holy Trinity Cathedral.
Patriarch Abune Paulos presided over the funerals of Emperor Haile Selassie in 2000 (even in the face of government hostility to this event), Crown Prince Asfaw Wossen in 1997, and Princess Tenagnework in 2004.
[citation needed] Abuna Paulos also found success after he asked a British Museum to return ten "tabots" containing images of the Ark of the Covenant.
[7][8] The Holy Synod and Abune Paulos appealed for the faithful to protect church heritages with a view to enabling them to be transferred to the next generation.
[citation needed] An act of Abune Paulos that caused much controversy was his advocacy of a pardon for the members of the Derg regime imprisoned in Ethiopia.
The groups opposed to the Derg pardon came away from the incident blaming Abune Paulos, but certain prominent members of the group, such as Mulugeta Aserate (son of Prince Aserate Kassa who was executed with the 60 ex-officials on 23 November 1974) wrote articles supporting the Patriarch's promotion of forgiveness and national reconciliation, and applauded the pardon.
On 26 June 2009, the Italian press claimed that Abune Paulos along with a man claiming to be a son of the late Prince Makonnen, Duke of Harar and Duke Amedeo of Aosta, would come forward at the Hotel Aldrovandi in Rome with the announcement that the true Ark of the Covenant, which has supposedly been kept in secret at St. Mary's of Zion in Ethiopia, would be unveiled to the public to view for the first time in history in a museum being built in Axum.
Lij Mulugeta Aserate Kassa, an adviser at the Ethiopian embassy in the United Kingdom, and a member of a cadet branch of Ethiopia's deposed Imperial family, noted that Abune Paulos had been in good health the previous day and had led a church service.
His peace efforts and humanitarian work were the main reasons for his being chosen to receive the Nansen Medal by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNCHR).
Patriarch Abune Paulos also met with President Omar Hassan Al-Bashir of Sudan in Khartoum to try to find a peaceful solution to the Darfur conflict that has been labeled as a genocide by Western critics.
Abune Paulos said “No one loves Africa more than Africans.” The Patriarch stated that finding an "African solution" is significant to curb problems of the continent.
[citation needed] He served as a member of central committee of the World Council of Churches (WCC) and the Faith and Order commission, and attended the Nairobi assembly.