The Church in Sweden

New Zealand Tablet, 14 April 1910, Page 573

T he Church in Sweden

Sweden, which Protestant authors cannot name without evoking the memory of Gustavus Adolphus and of the thirty ears War (says a writer in America has long remained hostile and closed to Catholicism. Although Queen Josephine, wife of King Oscar I. and grandmother of the King now reigning, was an ardent Catholic, and had at her court an official chaplain, the intolerance of the laws then in force was such, that in 1858 several ladies, known as having been guilty of becoming converts to Catholicism, were condemned to the confiscation of their goods and to exile. his sentence aroused, we must admit, strong protests from- all sides, and during; the years that 'followed, 5'' e j lsh legislation was remodelled in the direction of a greater freedom of conscience. i irr Fo-day th u e Catholic mission has churches at Stockholm, Gothenburg, Mano, Gefle, and Norrkoping. All these churches are of recent construction, for the splendid the magnificent cathedrals, which bore such striking testiHZ y J°+) the p C f ath ° + Faith of our ancestors, fell, g a t the time of the Reformation, into the hands of Protestants. • nS® largest Catholic parish is that of Stockholm. It IL,V V °i C ’ tht IS , to . say > universal in more than one Fnifh Ct ’ f °/ n ? + T i y 18 x. our Holy Apostolic and Roman Faith professed there, but also it constitutes the most variegated assemblage of all nationalities. Thus, besides the Swedes, it comprises Germans, Italians, French, English. Poles, Spaniards, etc. Even not long ago there were to be found in the Catholiq Church of Stockholm Catholic Japanese and Catholic Negroes. In Stockholm resides the Vicar-Apostolic, head of the Swedish mission, Monsignor Dr. Albertus Bitter, titular .bishop of Dobiche, a prelate who has succeeded in winning general esteem and sympathy, not only among Catholics, but also among Protestants. He is seen often enough at the royal court of Sweden. As the sphere of Monsignor Bitters activity is very wide, the Bishop'and the zealous priests who help him are obliged to undertake many and long apostolic journeys Southern Sweden presents a peculiar character: thousands of Polish workmen labor there during a great part of the year in cultivating beets, and here as elsewhere these 1 olish workmen, by their fervent piety and their spirit of sacrifice, deserve to be held up as examples to all Catholics. In order to reach the nearest church they do not hesitate to spend in railway tickets a notable part of their wages. They have a warm and devout friend in the person of a noble and pious o'd man, the Rev; Count Bernard Stolberg, a descendant of the celebrated convert, Count Frederic Leopold Stolberg, distinguished author, poet, and diplomatist. ' ~ As religious liberty is of relatively recent date in Sweden, and as the Catholics are few,-it is easy to understand that we cannot yet have a very rich Swedish Catholic literature. However, we may say of ' that which exists it is limited, but good. Besides some excellent catechetical works, we possess, in Swedish, an edition of the Manual of L. ; Goffine; one of ‘ Philothea, or the Devout Life of St. Francis de Sales’; a prayer book called ‘ Missale Romanum ’; several small pious books the excellent work of Cardinal Gibbons, The Faith of Our Fathers’; ‘Edgar,’ by Father L. von Hammerstein, S. J. ; a controversial catechism, ‘ Catholicism and Protestantism ’; and, finally, several small books of Mgr. de S6gur. We hope that the Swedish mission will find the funds to provide the Swedish people with other works, as for instance, the ‘ Imitation of Christ.’ • At any rate, we cannot help paying tribute to the enlightened and indefatigable zeal of those ho, in • the midst of the greatest difficulties, have succeeded __ in endowing the Catholic Church of Sweden with inestimable spiritual riches.