Roman Catholic Church in Finland

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The Roman Catholic Church in Finland is now a small diaspora community .

history

Beginnings

The first bishop in Finland was Henry of Uppsala in the 12th century. With him the Christianization took place in the area of ​​Finland, the starting date of which is traditionally the crusade of the Swedish King Erik the Holy , scheduled for the year 1155 . As a result, the first bishopric in Finland was founded in 1258/59 with the diocese of Turku .

Development since the Reformation

After the life of the Catholic Church in Finland was wiped out with the Reformation , there were the first new beginnings at the beginning of the 20th century. On June 8, 1920, a Vicariate Apostolic was established, which was entrusted to the Sacred Heart Priests from Germany and in 1950 already had 1,789 believers and four local diocesan priests.

On February 25, 1955, the Apostolic Vicariate was raised to the diocese of Helsinki , which covers the entire country with 338,145 km². By 2008 the number of Catholics rose steadily to around 10,350, by 2018 to almost 15,500, which, however, does not represent more than 0.3% of the population. There are roughly equal shares of Catholic immigrants and Finns who have converted to Catholicism. Many foreigners are also represented in the priesthood. Two Dutch people and one Polish headed the diocese of Helsinki before Teemu Sippo , a native of Finland, became the first Finnish bishop of Helsinki in 2009 .

In recent years the number of Catholics in Finland has increased to around 15,500. This also increased the need for church buildings. In 2013 a church building in Vaasa was purchased for the local community. In January 2014 it was announced that another parish (the eighth parish in Finland) would be founded in Kuopio . The church building, a former Evangelical Lutheran church, was consecrated to St. Joseph on May 3, 2014.

Nuncio in Finland

See also

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Website of the Catholic Church in Finland: "Helsingin hiippakunta" , accessed on February 22, 2020. (Finnish)
  2. ↑ Mikkonen, Juha: "Männistön vanha kirkko vihittiin Pyhän Joosefin kirkoksi" , in: Savon Sanomat, May 3, 2014, accessed on February 22, 2020. (Finnish)