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Pastor to ‘a very hopeful little grouop of Catholics'
A conversation with Anders Arborelius, Bishop of all Sweden
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| By Fr PAUL BONNICI
4 June, 2006 |
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| CHALLENGE: Sweden’s ‘materialistic, hedonistic and individualistic way of life makes it difficult for all believers’, says Bishop Anders Arborelius, ‘but there is growing openness to spiritual life’. |
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Bishop Anders Arborelius is the Roman Catholic Bishop of Stockholm. He heads the diocese whose territory covers the entire country of Sweden.
When in 1998 he succeeded Hubertus Brandenburg as Roman Catholic bishop of Stockholm, he became the first Swedish-born Catholic bishop in Sweden since the Reformation.
Until 1998, a long-standing shortage of native-born priests has meant that Sweden had to import its bishops: Bishop Brandenburg was German, and the bishop who preceded him – Bishop John E Taylor – was from the United States.
In fact, the last Swedish bishop of Sweden was named by a pope in 1522.
King Gustav Vasa in the early 16th century liked the idea of a ruler being “the head of everything’’ and tried to appoint his own bishops, who were never accepted as
legitimate by the Vatican.
In the late 16th century, the Protestant Reformation changed the structure of
religion in Sweden, and its citizens were banned from being Catholic.
The ban lasted until 1860.
Meanwhile, anyone who converted to Catholicism was automatically exiled.
Social reforms in the late 19th century led to the creation of laws protecting religious freedom, but even as late as 1945 there were only about 7000 Catholics in Sweden.
For more than 30 years Anders Arborelius lived as a Discalced Carmelite friar who gained a good reputation as a preacher, counsellor and retreat giver.
Between 1989 and his appointment to the episcopate, he lived in the monastery in Norraby where he became one of the most respected and appreciated spiritual advisers and retreat leaders in Sweden. He also held retreats abroad, in Latin America and the Philippines.
Born in Sorengo, Switzerland, of Swedish parents who divorced when he was four years’ old, Arborelius grew up with his mother in Lund in southern Sweden.
He converted to Catholicism at the age of 20 and joined the Order of Discalced Carmelites. His studies took him to Lund and Bruges as well as the Teresianum in Rome. He was ordained a priest in 1979.
Today, Sweden, despite being a big country, has fewer than nine million inhabitants, of whom about 150,000 identify themselves as Catholics.
The Catholic community in Sweden is far from being entirely native and an influx of thousands of immigrants has swelled its numbers.
Immigrants and refugees from Hungary, Poland, Latin America, the former Yugoslavia, Ethiopia, Eritrea and Iraq, in addition to a great number of workers from Mediterranean countries, have been welcomed into the kingdom.
A great challenge for Bishop Anders Arborelius is how to integrate a large Catholic population from abroad with that of his own country.
Bishop Arborelius, however, explained: “The general secular atmosphere in Sweden is the main challenge for all religious – the materialistic, hedonistic and individualistic way of life makes it difficult for all believers.
“For us Catholics there is a special challenge: Most of us come from different countries and cultures and we have to grow into one family.
“There are also, still today, some prejudices against Catholics, who are regarded as something foreign, non-Swedish.
“I often get the question: ‘Are you a real Swede?’ Many children of immigrants want to be as Swedish as possible, so their Catholic faith seems to be a hindrance to them.”
In one parish, for example, that of the southern Swedish university town of Lund, where the bishop himself was brought up, there are Catholics from more than 50 nations.
Regular Masses are celebrated in some of the native languages, which tend to help to comfort immigrants uprooted from their culture, language and land.
The bishop continued: “At the same time, there is a growing openness to spiritual life in Sweden. People are getting tired of secularisation.
“This is a very hopeful challenge to us – we have to be more open to evangelisation in an adequate way.
“We are a very hopeful little group of Catholics in Sweden. There even seems to be a growing interest among young people for vocations, especially for the religious life.
“We see that our Church is becoming more accepted as a part of society and even more so as part of the ecumenical scene.
“There are always conversions, including those of male and female Protestant pastors, and baptism of adults.
“Hopefully we also will grow in our desire to be a more evangelising community.”
Today 155 Catholic priests, including those from religious orders, work in Sweden, while there is a handful of men currently studying for the priesthood for the diocese of Stockholm.
Bishop Arborelius has been running a campaign abroad trying desperately hard to persuade priests from other parts of the world to move to Sweden.
Some of the newcomers have never been to Europe before and are not at all acquainted with the secular culture of Scandinavia, which stretches to the limit not only their
linguistic abilities but also their cultural adaptation.
One of the highlights of Bishop Arborelius’s episcopate was when on October 12, 2003, the Catholic diocese of Stockholm celebrated its 50th birthday.
The festive Mass was attended by Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor, Archbishop of Westminster, as papal legate, and other Church leaders.
The King of Sweden was also there, showing by his presence that the Catholic Church is now fully accepted among the significant religious movements in the country.
Bishop Arborelius continues: “I think that the most important way of
evangelising in the Sweden of today is through contacts in everyday life, such as at work. The witness of a really committed Catholic can work wonders.
“Also the voice of the Church on contemporary issues – peace, ethics and the dignity of life –is very important.”
Since the year 2000, the Catholic Church in Sweden has been able to receive monies from the so-called Church tax. Its income has been increased dramatically in this way.
It has enabled the diocese to employ more people, not just to administer the tax system itself, but also to enhance the performance of various offices in bishop’s house such as that of communications and media relations. The profile of the Church has been raised, its role in the national debate and conversation increased and the teachings of the Church are made known to all through the mass media as means of evangelisation.
Still very much a Discalced Carmelite, who wears his habit and participates in Carmelite events world wide, Bishop Arborelius reveals his secret: “Above all, spiritual
guidance is very much needed. Our contemplative communities are forces of evangelisation.”
For him prayer and evangelisation go hand in hand.
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