(Vatican Radio) The Catholic Church in Sweden is hoping Pope Francis will bring a message of faith, hope and unity to a very secular society. The Pope arrives in the southern city of Malmö on Monday and travels to nearby Lund to take part in an ecumenical prayer service with leaders of the Lutheran World Federation in the cathedral there.
Later in the afternoon, he returns to Malmö for an event in the main sports arena jointly organised by Caritas Internationalis and the Lutheran World Service. The theme of the event ‘ Together in Hope ’ is focused on common witness and service to those most in need.
On Monday the Pope will celebrate Mass for the Solemnity of All Saints day in Malmö before returning to Rome in the afternoon.
Oblate Father Fredrik Emanuelson is episcopal vicar for evangelization in Stockholm, the only Catholic diocese in the country and has been helping to coordinate this papal visit to Sweden. He talked to Philippa Hitchen about the country’s tiny Catholic community and the about the challenges of ecumenical collaboration…
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Fr Emanuelson says the Catholic Church in Sweden has an “enormous cultural diversity,” with immigrants of 2nd, 3rd and even 4th generations making up the majority of people in the 44 parishes, mainly located around the big cities.
There are also a dozen or more national missions with people gathering around priests of different nationalities, cultures or languages. A key pastoral challenge therefore, he says, is “to live as a Catholic community in unity” the relationships between parishes and national missions.
Officially registered Catholics number only 113.000, Fr Emanuelson says, there are known to be many more unregistered throughout the country.
Dialogue between Church and society
The Swedish Lutheran Church was a state church from 1593 up until the year 2000, when there was separation between State and Church. It is still by far the biggest Church, but Fr Emanuelson notes that “the reality of believing, practicing Christians is Sweden is just a fraction of that membership”. The real challenge today, he says, is not so much dialogue between Churches but between the Gospel and Swedish society.
Message of faith and hope
Asked about the message the Pope can bring on this visit, Fr Emanuelson says he hopes it will be a message of faith and hope in a country where social welfare is well advanced, yet where there are new challenges with the many refugees from the Middle East. He says Swedes “have to be careful to live up to values that we call our core values and, as Churches, to help in a practical way and to be prophetic witnesses in leading the way”.
3 elements of commemoration
Speaking about the ecumenical events on Monday, Fr Emanuelson points out that the initiative stems from the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity and Lutheran World Federation but is also being hosted by the Stockholm dioceses, “so we have 3 different levels, global, national and local level and 2 different churches. He describes it as “a very courageous thing to do” and explains the way the events are “taking the cue” from the 2013 report ‘From Conflict to Communion ’. That document details the 3 main elements of commemoration – thanksgiving for the official dialogue which began 50 years ago and has brought the Churches much closer together. The 2nd moment, he continues, speaks of penance and of recognizing “the pain and the hurt we’ve caused one another”, encouraging us to look ahead and “to ask how can we mend and have purification of memory”. The 3rd moment, he says, is “in service and witness to live the Gospel in Sweden and the world today”.
(from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis has departed from Rome’s Fiumicino airport on his 17th Apostolic visit to Sweden for a joint commemoration of the Reformation, together with leaders of the Lutheran World Federation.
Following his arrival at Malmo international airport the Pope will be greeted by the Swedish Prime Minister. The Holy Father is also due to pay a courtesy visit to the King and Queen of which will be followed this afternoon by an ecumenical prayer service at the Lutheran Cathedral of Lund.
The Holy Father’s Apostolic journey concludes on Tuesday afternoon November 1st after the celebration of Mass at the Swedbank Stadioum in Malmo.
(from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis departs on a historic visit to Sweden on Monday for a joint commemoration of the Reformation, together with leaders of the Lutheran World Federation. During the 26 hour visit, he’ll also celebrate Mass for the Solemnity of All Saints Day with the small Catholic communities in Sweden and the neighbouring Nordic countries.
It’s the Pope’s 17th foreign trip, but as Philippa Hitchen reports, it’s shaping up to one of his most historic, at least from an ecumenical perspective:
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Next October 2017, marks the 500th anniversary of the start of the Protestant Reformation, sparked by the publication of Martin Luther’s famous 95 theses on what he saw as the much needed reforms for the Church of his day.
Nobody is quite sure if he did, dramatically, nail them to the door of the church in Wittenburg, as some historians believe. What is certain though is that over the centuries since then, the event has been commemorated in a polemical and antagonistic way, attempting to prove that one side was right, while the other side was wrong and the cause of all the bloody conflicts that followed.
But over past decades attitudes have radically changed and the ecumenical movement has brought people together across those denominational divides. Historians and theologians have taken a closer, more objective look at what really happened back then and shown that Luther had no intention of dividing the Church. They’ve seen how secular, political interests fanned the flames of theological controversy that could have been resolved with more listening, trust and respect from both sides. And they’ve proved how some of the apparently most divisive theological ideas of Luther’s day are actually what both sides believe, leading to a landmark 1999 document called the Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification.
All of which is why Catholic-Lutheran relations are now better than ever before and why Pope Francis is going to Sweden to jointly host this first ever ecumenical commemoration, the 499th anniversary, to be precise, to set the tone for celebrations that’ll follow throughout the coming year.
The southern city of Lund is where the Lutheran World Federation was founded in 1947 and it’s in the medieval cathedral here that the Pope and the Lutheran leaders will preside together at a prayer service, featuring thanksgiving for ecumenical progress, repentance for past sins, and hope for a future of shared Christian witness.
Among those welcoming the Pope to Sweden will be the female archbishop of Uppsala, Antje Jackelén, which makes for an interesting encounter, since women’s ordination is one of the major issues dividing the Protestant and Catholic Churches today. The Pope made some polite comments about her in an interview on the eve of his trip, but could she convince him to revisit what some Catholic commentators see as one of the biggest challenges facing their Church today?
Another area of expectation surrounding the visit is whether the Pope will take any further steps towards permitting Catholics and Lutherans to share the Eucharist at the same altar rail. While the practice is currently allowed only in very particular circumstances, Francis went further than any of his predecessors, during a visit to the Lutheran church in Rome recently, to suggest that personal conscience can be as good a guide as anything laid down in canon law.
In the pre-trip interview, the Pope said that praying and working together to help the sick, the poor, the prisoners, is a key way of advancing the cause for unity among all Christians today. Partnering together for justice and peace is one area where even the most secularised citizens in these Nordic countries can agree and work alongside the different Churches and faith organisations.
If the Pope can encourage really creative and stepped up collaboration in this area at least, then maybe, hopefully, that spirit of closeness and encounter, as he calls it, will lead to solutions to the more tricky theological problems as well.
(from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) In his reflection ahead of the Angelus prayer, Pope Francis spoke about the day’s Gospel, which told the story of Jesus meeting, and dining with, Zacchaeus, a publican. Because he was a public sinner, and because of his small stature, Zacchaeus had to climb a tree in order to see Jesus when He came to Jericho. When the Lord arrived, He called out, “Zacchaeus, come down quickly, for today I must stay at your house.”
“We can imagine the amazement of Zacchaeus!” Pope Francis said. Jesus’ mission of salvation, he said, includes all humanity, and even extends to Zacchaeus, “a dishonest man, despised by all.” But the gaze of Jesus, the Pope said, “goes beyond sins and prejudices. He sees the person with the eyes of God, which does not stop at past evil, but sees the good future.”
The Holy Father said that, although we sometimes seek to correct or convert sinners by rebuking or reproaching them, Jesus shows us another way: helping someone who has made mistakes to see their true worth, “the worth God continues to see despite everything, despite their mistakes.” This approach, he said, sometimes leads to a positive surprise, it can help the person to grow and change.
Pope Francis concluded his reflection with the prayer: “May the Virgin Mary help us to see the good that is in the people we encounter each day, so that all might be encouraged to bring out the image of God impressed on their hearts.”
Following the Angelus, and after his greetings to various pilgrim groups, Pope Francis asked for prayers for his upcoming voyage to Sweden on the occasion of the commemoration of the Protestant Reformation: “I ask all of you to pray that this voyage might be a new stage in the journey of fraternity toward full communion.”
(from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) At the Angelus on Sunday, Pope Francis noted the beatification in Madrid of four Spanish martyrs: Blessed José Antón Gómez, Antolín Pablos Villanueva, Juan Rafael Mariano Alcocer Martínez and Luis Vidaurrázaga Gonzáles. The four Benedictine priests were killed during the Spanish Civil War.
In his remarks following the Angelus prayer, Pope Francis said, “We praise the Lord, and we entrust to their intercession our brothers and sisters who unfortunately still today, in various parts of the world, are persecuted for their faith in Christ.
(from Vatican Radio)…