Saturday, March 23, 2013

Scandinavia: Growing Church and Ever More Seminarians

NB: innocent until otherwise proven. Flowers can indeed grow in inhosptable places and help can come unlooked from afar.

Vienna (kat.net/KAP)  The Catholic Church in Scandinavia grows, and even the numbers of home grown priests climbs:  as reported by a communique from Stift Heiligenkreuz on the Spring convocation of the Northern Bishop Conference it reads, there are already 60 young men from the region, who are seminarians from Scandinavia studying for the priesthood.  Many of them are converts from the Lutheran National Church.

According to cautious estimates, there are at present in the seven Diocese of Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Norway and islands about 500,000 Catholics.  The number grows rapidly; the trend is counter to the rest of Europe.  The reasons for this are mobility, growing numbers of refugees, conversions as well as a large number of baptisms.

According to the communique the general convocation was held to approve the statutes for seminary rectors.  In the text, the Bishops also stressed their thanks to Benedict XVI. and blessings for the successor Francis.  The Northern Bishops Conference meets till Wednesday in the University of Heilegenkreuz.

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