Thanks to immigrants” “

Immigrants are not a problem: in the Scandinavian countries, where the Catholic component forms a small minority (in the five states followers of the Church of Rome generally do not exceed 5% of the population), they become a “resource”: the point was made by the Bishops of Norway, Sweden, Finland, Denmark and Iceland, who recently met to discuss the main pastoral problems of the present time. IMMIGRANTS, A PRECISE COMMITMENT – “Migrations are a typical phenomenon of our globalized world. We can consider them a sign of the providential love of God that can strengthen the bonds of universal solidarity between people”, declare the bishops of the five countries of the Scandinavian Bishops’ Conference (Norway, Sweden, Finland, Iceland and Denmark), in the final communiqué with which they summed up the work of their recent autumn general assembly, held in Reykjavik, in Iceland. Even in the countries of the extreme north of Europe, the pastoral care of immigrants is becoming a problem of some magnitude, albeit in a social and economic situation of considerable affluence and stability. Apart from migratory flows from Eastern Europe, a sizeable part of emigration from the Middle East and from African and Far Eastern countries is directed towards the Scandinavian countries. The bishops write in this regard: “Thanks to immigration, our local Churches in the Nordic countries have been able to develop and bring the Gospel to many in our secularised society. We are very grateful to the Catholics who have come to Scandinavia from every part of the world and who have helped us to build up our Church”. INTEGRATION NOT ALWAYS EASY – As in other national contexts, phenomena of “rejection” have emerged also in the Scandinavian countries. The bishops point this out in their statement, in which they remark: “More recently, unfortunately, we have noted some alarming signs in the Nordic nations: a lack of generosity in the welcome of refugees and asylum seekers, growing xenophobia and segregation. We therefore ask all people of good will to dedicate themselves to the creation of an open and hospitable society, in which each individual human being is treated in a just and humane way”. In response to this worrying situation, the bishops pledge to provide “proper pastoral care”, which ought to be translated into pastoral services geared to the various ethnic and linguistic groups, “without the establishment of national parishes” for each minority group of immigrants. The parishes will be called to cooperate to this end and forge links with the various national groups, with a view to a wider service and closer integration. PASTORAL NOMINATIONS AND DECISIONS – The decisions taken at the September assembly include the nomination of Bishop Anders Arborelius of Stockholm as the new President of the Scandinavian Bishops’ Conference, and that of Bishop Czeslaw Kozon of Copenhagen as its new vice-president. Bishop Georg Muller of Trondheim, in Norway, was also nominated to sit on the three-man permanent council. It was announced that the pastoral letter on the family, on which the assembly of bishops worked a lot, will be published on 30 December, and the hope expressed that it would be translated into other languages, apart from the Nordic ones. It was also decided that on issues of social and ethical character, the Bishops’ Conference would diffuse documents and declarations to the political and cultural world to give greater public resonance to them. The bishops also touched on the controversial issues of euthanasia and bioethics. It was pointed out, among other things, that these issues could be discussed at the “third European ecumenical assembly” due to be held in Romania in 2007. The bishops also decided to circulate extracts and reports on the recent conference on the pastoral care of prostitutes and the victims of human trafficking, held in Rome in June 2005. The next general assembly of the Scandinavian bishops will be held in Denmark from 10 to 15 March 2006.