Diocese of Helsinki (Roman Catholic)
Diocese of Helsinki (Roman Catholic) | |
Basic data | |
---|---|
Country | Finland |
Ecclesiastical province | Immediate |
Diocesan bishop | Sedis vacancy |
Diocesan administrator | Marco Pasinato |
Emeritus diocesan bishop | Teemu Sippo SCJ |
founding | 1955 |
surface | 338,145 km² |
Parishes | 8 (December 31, 2015 / AP 2017 ) |
Residents | 5,517,919 (December 31, 2018 ) |
Catholics | 15,483 (December 31, 2018 ) |
proportion of | 0.3% |
Diocesan priest | 15 (December 31, 2015 / AP 2017 ) |
Religious priest | 11 (12/31/2015 / AP 2017 ) |
Catholics per priest | 596 |
Friars | 12 (December 31, 2015 / AP 2017 ) |
Religious sisters | 25 (December 31, 2015 / AP 2017 ) |
rite | Roman rite |
Liturgical language | Finnish , Latin |
cathedral | St. Henry's Cathedral |
Website | katolinen.fi |
The Diocese of Helsinki ( Latin Dioecesis Helsinkiensis ) is the only Roman Catholic diocese in Finland with its seat in the capital Helsinki ; as a territory it includes all of Finland.
history
After the life of the Catholic Church in Finland was extinguished with the Reformation , the first new beginnings were made at the beginning of the 20th century. On June 8, 1920, an Apostolic Vicariate was established from the Archdiocese of Mahiljou , which was entrusted to the Sacred Heart Priests from Germany and in 1950 already counted 1,789 believers and four local diocesan priests.
On February 25, 1955, the Vicariate Apostolic was elevated to the diocese of Helsinki, which includes the whole country. By 2016, the number of Catholics increased steadily to 13,942, but this does not represent more than 0.3% of the population. At that time, 15 local diocesan priests as well as 11 religious priests and 25 religious sisters lived and worked in the diocese, many of whom came from abroad.
In 2000, the management of the diocese passed into Polish hands, as the German Province of the Sacred Heart Priests could no longer provide the necessary priests for the Nordic Mission, so that this year, Józef Wróbel, a Polish bishop for Helsinki, was appointed . From 2009 to 2019, Teemu Sippo was the first native of Finland to be Bishop of Helsinki. The diocese has been vacant since Sippo's resignation for health reasons.
Churches
Catholic churches in Finland |
The eight parishes are spread over the whole of Finland from Oulu in northern Finland to the capital Helsinki in the south.
These communities are located in:
- Helsinki : Cathedral Parish of St. Heinrich
- Helsinki: Parish of St. Mary
- Jyväskylä : Parish of St. Olav
- Kouvola : Parish of St. Ursula
- Kuopio : Parish of St. Joseph
- Oulu : Parish of the Holy Family of Nazareth
- Tampere : Parish of the Holy Cross
- Turku : Parish of St. Birgitta and Bl. Hemming
Vicars Apostolic
- 1923-1933 Mikael Buckx SCJ
- 1934-1955 Gulielmus Cobben SCJ
Bishops
- 1955-1967 Gulielmus Cobben SCJ
- 1967–1998 Paul Verschuren SCJ
- 2001-2008 Józef Wróbel SCJ
- 2009–2019 Teemu Sippo SCJ
- Sedis vacancy since 2019
Web links
- Official website of the Catholic Church in Finland (Finnish, English)
- Entry on the Diocese of Helsinki on catholic-hierarchy.org (English)