For the second time in history, the Pope will go to the Nordic countries. Well, a Nordic country. In 1989, Pope St. John Paul II was in Sweden for two days, visiting Stockholm, Uppsala, Vadstena and Linköping. This year, on 31 October, Pope Francis will go to Lund.
The surprising announcement was made today, but in hindsight it is impossible to not recall, in relation to this, the visit of the head of the Lutheran Church of Sweden, Archbishop Antje Jackelén, to Pope Francis in May of last year (pictured below). Undoubtedly, the papal visit was discussed then.
The one-day visit, which is not an apostolic journey, or a regular papal visit to the faithful of a given country, will be to the ecumenical celebration of the Catholic Church in Sweden and the Lutheran World Federation to mark the 500th anniversary of the Reformation, which will take place in the Southern Swedish city of Lund, where the LWF was founded in 1947. Pope Francis will be leading this celebration together with the president and general secretary of the LWF. Cardinal Kurt Koch, president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, is also said to accompany the Holy Father. This service will be based on the recently-published Catholic-Lutheran liturgical guide, which proposes and formalises ways in which members of both communities can celebrate together.
Other elements of the visit are still to be announced. It will be Pope Francis’ fifth visit to a European country (not counting Italy), after Albania and France in 2014, Bosnia and Herzegovina in 2015, and Poland in July of 2016.
Your blogger is definitely looking into a slim chance of travelling to Lund at that time, and report from there. Keep your eyes on the blog.
In Caelo et in Terra 