Religion, Mission, and Development: The Catholic Church as a Religious Infrastructure in Kafa, Ethiopia

Abstract

Abstract The Catholic Church, along with other denominational groups, is an important part of the religious landscape in the Kafa region of southwestern Ethiopia. In addition to pastoral activities, the Catholic Church is particularly involved in the provision of social infrastructure facilities such as schools, kindergartens, or hospitals as part of the Human Integral Development approach to its mission. This article therefore examines the role of the Catholic Church and its mission on the everyday life of the people in the Kafa region. Drawing on ethnographic research, the article conceptualises the Catholic Church as a religious infrastructure – a notion that sheds light on the socio-material processes and entanglements that enable the anticipation of ideas about the future and about development. In addition, the article explores the role of the Catholic Church in sociocultural transformation processes through this infrastructural approach, thereby contributing to a subject that has been hitherto neglected in anthropological studies of religion and Christianity.