Bishop and also parish priest ” “” “

At Tautra, a tiny island in the fjord of Trondheim in Norway, there’s a Cistercian monastery: five sisters came here from the USA and from Belgium in response to the invitation of the bishop of the diocese. They live here devoting themselves to a life of prayer. They give a warm welcome to everyone who knocks on their doors. They support themselves by fishing and the manufacture of soap and candles. In Norway, a country with a population of roughly four and a half million, there are only some 38,000 Catholics; 70% of them were born abroad. Some 3200 of them live in Trondheim: the local bishop , Georg Müller , told SirEurope how the Catholic community lives. What are the pastoral priorities in your diocese? “It’s very difficult for me to establish priorities, because our community is so small. We have no pastoral plan or programme to define our work. I can tell you, however, that my main pastoral concerns are three: the first is reinforcing the spiritual life of the community, especially through liturgical celebrations. A second major commitment is linked to the construction of the community dimension: here over 19 different cultures are present, and so we need to strike the right balance between the promotion of the individual identities and their integration in the Norwegian context. That’s why the liturgies are always celebrated in Norwegian. Only occasionally do the various linguistic communities gather together to celebrate separately. A third major commitment is that of catechesis, especially of children. Through children we reach their families and create communities. My greatest difficulty is that I have so few competent and qualified assistants; priests too are in short supply: there are only 5 in the whole diocese”. What are your main tasks? “At the present time, since the parish priest of the cathedral is on holiday, I have to act as parish priest myself! It forms part of my ordinary life, however, being at people’s disposal: I don’t have any staff to help me. I have to do all the work of the curia by myself! So everyone who has a problem or a request knocks on my door. In this way pastoral care becomes ever richer for me”. What form do ecumenical relations take in this condition of absolute minority? “There’s a great respect for the Catholic Church and no type of discrimination. At times, however, we are not understood. My ecumenical commitment begins however in the Catholic community, to try to arouse ecumenical understanding and an ecumenical mentality among Catholics, as John Paul II often urges”. What does Europe look like, seen from Norway ? “I’m German and was born after the war, so for me Europe has always been charged with a prophetic significance. The unity of the whole of our continent seems to me the only possibility we have for the future. Here in Norway, on the other hand, there’s a great deal of scepticism about Europe and also some presumption: Norway is higher up, further to the north; Europe is further down, to the south. It seems to me there is some diffidence in seeing power concentrated in a single institution. There’s also deep concern for certain sectors of the economy, first and foremost fishing, which is our main source of income. Norway is a rich country also thanks to its oilfields, and the Norwegians are very generous on the whole, in particular in the field of international solidarity. However they want to decide by themselves where to channel their own wealth and how to distribute their own resources!”.