[1][3][4] When the government expelled foreign missionaries, he was left with responsibility for 15 parishes in addition to his original assignment.

[6] He has served as its chancellor and toured the United States to raise funds through an organization founded by Archbishop Silvano Tomasi, a veteran Vatican diplomat.

[6][8] He was elected chairman of the Association of Member Episcopal Conferences in Eastern Africa (AMECEA) during its 18th Plenary Assembly in Malawi in July 2014.

[9] At that ceremony, he was made a cardinal priest and was assigned the titular church of San Romano Martire.

[10] On 13 April 2015, hé was appointed a member of the Congregation for the Oriental Churches and of the Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerants.

[11] In 2015, as part of a long campaign for national reconciliation following the end of the military council's authoritarian rule (1974–1987), he advocated for imprisoned Derg officials to have their death sentences commuted, and he met with several of them, including one who had arrested him years earlier, upon their release from prison.