Affluence and loneliness” “

A minority Church in a country where out of a population of 4,500,000 only 45,000 are Catholics. Yet it is an international and youthful Church due to the presence of faithful from some 80 countries throughout the world who have come to Norway as immigrants. A community open to constant dialogue with Christians, with the faithful of other religions, with non-believers. That’s how Msgr. Georg Müller , bishop of Trondheim, describes the Catholic Church in Norway. We interviewed him. An international community. The Norwegian Catholic Church, says Bishop Müller, has the characteristic of being “an international Church: the Catholics who form part of it come from some eighty different nations in the world. And it’s a young Church, due to the presence of many immigrants who came to our country in the Eighties. Our greatest asset is that of being a Catholic community composed of different cultures, nations and languages. That gives us the chance to bear witness both to the unity and to the universality of the Church”. Our priests also reflect this internationalism: this year, for example, a priest of Vietnamese origin will be ordained in Trondheim. The presence of religious, especially of the contemplative orders, is also a great asset: there are Carmelites, Trappists, Sisters of St. Brigid “and a congregation of nuns from the Philippines who came to Norway to help migrants, especially woman, from their own country”. Isolation and loneliness. If the majority of the population is Lutheran, a large part declare themselves non-believers. “Norway – explains Bishop Müller – is an affluent country. There is no unemployment; practically everyone works, even if immigrants are the most disadvantaged, because they do not find it easy to find a job, especially due to the difficulties of learning the language”. It is affluence that has led Norway to isolate herself from Europe, “by choosing not to form part of the European Community”. But there is also isolation among people. Müller speaks of loneliness and the spread of a materialistic mentality that is having a serious impact on the life of families. Broken homes, single-parent families are becoming ever more numerous. And the young? “The young – replies the bishop – have turned freedom into their great ideal, but often it’s just in the name of this freedom that they go down roads that are not always compatible with the values of the Church”. From this point of view, “the presence of Catholics coming from other countries in the world may be a gift for Norway, even if the values in which they believe are not always understood”. Interreligious dialogue. Just because it is a minority, the Catholic Church in Norway succeeded in promoting an important interreligious meeting for peace, held in Trondheim on 23 January this year, shortly before the prayer day called by the Pope in Assisi. “I know the various religious communities – says Bishop Müller – thanks to our immigrants. Our idea of meeting together to discuss issues of peace was embraced by the Baha’i community, by Moslems, Hindus, Buddhists, Jews, Lutherans and Catholics. The meeting, in which a representative of the government also participated, was held in a room in the archbishop’s palace, without religious symbols. Each community prayed, sang and made a declaration, each in its own language. They all expressed their joy of meeting together and many asked to be enabled to continue to do so in future. On meeting the Norwegian bishops in the Vatican, the Pope asked them to “cultivate an authentic and profound spirituality of communion”. “The Lord – says Bishop Müller – is the creator of that communion: our task is only that of helping the Church to consolidate herself, to grow and live in communion – also in the diversity of nations, in the ecumenical field, in our relations with non-believers and with the faithful of other religions. In the Old Testament there is a prophecy: the vision of the day in which, at the end of time, all the peoples of the earth will set out on pilgrimage towards Jerusalem. In Norway, this has already become a reality, because we see people of different nationalities converge on the sanctuary of the one God”.