” “The first shoots of a Church

Five million inhabitants in a territory as large as Italy, of whom 89% are of Lutheran Evangelic faith, 1% Russian Orthodox, 9% non-declared and the remaining 1% comprising the “other religions”, including Catholics: that is the religious situation in Finland today, the Scandinavian country furthest to the East, and bordering on Russia, with which it has always been historically linked. After the period of Swedish domination, which lasted from the 12th to the 19th century, the country formed part of the Czarist Empire from 1809 to 1917, gaining its independence in the year of the October Revolution. The first preaching of the Gospel occurred as late as 1100, but Christianity never put down any deep roots. With the Reformation, Catholicism effectively disappeared, not resurfacing till the second half of the 19th century. It was then that the cathedral in Helsinki was built. But it was and remained a minority community, linked to the presence of the Polish army that had permission to have a Catholic military chaplain. Since then the Finnish Church has made some small step-by-step progress, supported by Propaganda Fide, by the economic and religious aid coming especially from the German and more recently from the Polish Church, whence also comes the bishop of Helsinki, Msgr. Josef Wrobel . “Ours is a small national Church – explains Msgr. Wrobel – with only seven parishes, some twenty priests and 8,200 registered faithful, of whom a good part are immigrants from many national communities”. Faithful of 35 different languages. The Finnish parishes are huge in terms of territorial extension. “I was parish priest for twelve years at Tampere – says Father Peter Gebara – and was transferred to Turku ten months ago. My previous parish had 700 faithful, my new one has 1200; in both the community is scattered over a huge territory, a real ‘diaspora’. To give you some idea of the distances, at Tampere I travelled for 500 km to meet groups of faithful; now I ‘only’ travel some 250. On the other hand, the ethnic and linguistic composition of my flock has not changed: I meet faithful of 60 different nations with 35 different languages. It’s a hard nut to crack for the preaching of the Gospel, especially given that Finnish is a very difficult language to learn”. The challenge of vocations. A Church so young and so poor in clergy could not survive without the support of religious vocations. “Fortunately we have a number of small communities of Sisters – says the Italian don Marino Trevisini, who has been in Finland for 17 years, first as parish priest at Oulu, the parish that comprises over half the country in the north reaching right up to the polar circle, and now as parish priest in the capital Helsinki. The communities of nuns include 5 contemplative Carmelites, 2 Bridgettine Sisters, the Ursulines who dedicate themselves to young children, and 4 Sisters of Mother Teresa of Calcutta who work with the poor and abandoned old people. Opus Dei has started three communities, 2 female and 1 male, involved in particular in the university world. At Tampere 1 ‘focolare’ of Chiara Lubich has been opened. In short, the Finnish Church is putting forth its first shoots”. The real challenge of the future will be that of vocations, since only 2 of the priests in service are Finnish. “One small seminary with close connections with the Neocatechumenal Way was opened some time ago – adds don Cristiano Magagna, he too Italian and vice-rector – but the 10 seminarians studying there are all foreigners”. Meanwhile, ecumenical dialogue is proceeding. “In recent years mutual trust and respect has grown – emphasises Father Trevisini – and ecumenical celebrations of the Word are frequent, with the participation of the pastors and faithful of the 3 main Christian confessions”.