January 18, 2024 was a big day for Catholics in Oslo, Norway. 150 priests and a dozen bishops came to be present for the episcopal ordination of Fredrik Hansen.
There was also a high-ranking visitor from Rome: Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican’s Secretary of State.
Cardinal Parolin noted, “It is, of course, a church, small in size and in number, but a church very alive and very active. This is a sign of hope for all the society in this country and in general in the Scandinavian countries. Then there is a church very much committed on the area of charity. And the third, I think that it is a church very, very, very united with the Pope and with the Holy See.”
The Catholic Church in predominantly Lutheran Norway is still in the minority. Bishop Bernt Ivar Eidsvig, who has led the diocese of Oslo for almost 20 years now, remembers how the Church in Norway began to grow with the arrival of many Catholic immigrants from abroad.
Bishop Eidsvig highlighted, “I opened the churches for them, I found places for them to live. And it worked. After a short time, we grew from, I think, 42,000 at the time I took over to now 142,000 [Catholics].”
EWTN Vatican journalist Rudolf Gehrig asked, “So what was your secret for growth?”
Very simply, the bishop replied, “To open the doors. That was the only secret.”
“We joke about there’s only two Catholic blondes in Norway, and I’m one of them,” stated Marie Foss, a 21-year-old Catholic from Oslo. She is studying to be a primary school teacher in Norway and a member of the Norwegian Catholic Youth Organization, called “Norges Unge Katolikker.”
Foss shared, “It was a very emotional experience for me being in there, like the moment that he sat down with the miter and the staff in his hand, it was so unreal. But it felt really that it was his place as well. We’ve been waiting for Bishop Frederic.”
Fredric Frederic Hansen was 20 years old when he converted to the Catholic Church. After studying in Rome, he worked in the Pope’s diplomatic service. Last year, Pope Francis appointed him coadjutor bishop. He will succeed Bishop Bernt Eidsvig as bishop of Oslo as soon as the Pope has accepted his resignation.
Before Cardinal Parolin ordained the Norwegian as a bishop, he reminded him of his most important mission:
“The more holy you become, the more light you will radiate—not a light of your own, but the supernatural light of Christ’s truth within you. This light will shine through your life and in your living in accordance with the episcopal motto you have chosen: ‘Lex tua veritas’ (‘Your law is truth’).”
Bishop Erik Varden of the Diocese of Trondheim, Norway, explained, “When you look at the text of the questions that the ordaining bishop asks, to which the ordinand says, ‘yes, I will,’ that’s pretty overwhelming! And everything that follows on, you know, with the laying on of hands and the anointing and the bestowal of the insignia follows from that…. But that that repeated, ‘yes, I want to do this’ is deeply moving!”
Bishop Fredrik Hansen, the future Bishop of Oslo, shared:
“As a child in elementary school, I wanted to be a Lutheran pastor. I liked what I saw and what the pastor was doing. I thought the pastor lived in the church. That was one thing that appealed to me. And he got to preach the Word of God. Then as I got older, into the teenage years, I drifted away from practicing the faith or going to church regularly. But then when I decided to become a Catholic, the question came immediately, what about the priesthood? There’s something radical about the Catholic priesthood. You give your life, you lay your whole life down. You sacrifice everything. It’s everything or nothing. And I think that that commitment, that demanding reality of priesthood spoke to me.”
Monsignor Georg Austen also came to Oslo to support the new bishop. Austen is the Secretary General of the Bonifatiuswerk. The German Catholic Aid organization is supporting the Catholic Church in the Nordic countries since 1974 as part of its Northern European aid program.
Msgr. Austen explained, “He has the challenge of uniting many different nationalities in the universal church. This is where the spirit of the universal church blows. On the other hand, how can we, as a minority church, make our voice heard in society? How can we help shape society?”
Bishop Fredrik Hansen will also work very closely with Sister Mirijam Kaschner, the Secretary General of the Nordic Bishops’ conference.
Sister added, “We need catechesis and we need new evangelization. I believe that the last bishop appointments we have had here are bishops who are passionate about precisely that. That gives me a lot of hope for our church in the north.”
Gehrig asked, “Have you talked to Bishop Frederik already? Any advice you gave him?”
Sister replied, “Well, I said hello to him very briefly yesterday before vespers. Then he came up to me when I was praying the rosary. I just said: Frederik, this rosary is for you! And then he hugged me. And I thought in that moment, yes, that’s it, he is the right one!”
However, the new bishop knows exactly where he gets the strength for his vocation. He noted:
“I think that relationship with our Lord Jesus Christ is crucial. But then to become a priest and to celebrate the Eucharist, to hold in one’s hand the body of Christ and to lift high the chalice, it changes you. And then to do so for the people… this is something I expect will also happen as a bishop. That as you enter the service of the church, your life of prayer becomes about praying for your people. Their concerns become your concerns. Their lives become your life.”
Gehrig added one last question: “If the 45-year-old Bishop Frederick were to meet the 20-year-old Frederick from back then, what would he tell him?”
The Bishop responded, “That’s a good question. I think pray more, read more. And spend more time with your friends.”
Adapted by Jacob Stein
