EUROPE / SWEDEN – Life in Faith and Mission for Chaldean Catholics in Northern Europe
EUROPE / SWEDEN – Life in Faith and Mission for Chaldean Catholics in Northern Europe
Gothenburg (Agenzia Fides) – What does it mean to be a Catholic in a Scandinavian country, in the context of a Lutheran majority, but also of widespread atheism? And what are the missionary challenges of a “minority within a minority,” such as the believers in the Chaldean rite? What message does such an ancient church, the holder of the liturgical language closest to what Jesus spoke, send to the modern Western world and to the believers in the Middle East diaspora?
Achieved by Agenzia Fides at its office in Gothenburg, Sweden, Father Rayan Atto, Principal of the Chaldean Mission since the summer of 2018, seeks to answer these questions and offer a perspective of testimony and evangelical presence rooted in a world far from Iraq and so diverse. traditions.
“In Sweden – says Father Ryan Atto – there are about 120,000 Catholics, including many different rituals, while the Swedish Lutheran Church has 7 million faithful. We can say that there are Catholics in all regions of Sweden and that the church has about ten spiritual The community is made up of a number of locals and a significant number of Poles, Ukrainians, who come from some other European countries and, of course, a large number of Austrian Catholics. we Chaldeans between 20/25 thousand, there are Maronites, Syrians and Armenian Catholics and Melkites, the latter have recently increased due to arrivals from Syria ” […] (- continues)
(Fides Agency, 9/10/2021)
Appendix to the article
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