An alien Church?

 

Josefina (1807-1876)

“Världsvid men främmande. Den katolska kyrkan i Sverige 1873-1929” by Yvonne Maria Werner is a somewhat eclectic book in Swedish, published in 1996 by a Swedish Catholic press. It´s almost 500 pages (including footnotes and references). I didn´t read literally all of it, but it probably *is* necessary reading if you want to know “everything” about the Catholic Church in Sweden 1873-1929. I mostly remember scattered facts, but they too were interesting.

In the beginning of this period, the Catholic Church was scarcely even legal in Sweden, while at the end, it was – but still heavily challenged, now perhaps more by secularism than Lutheranism. This was also a period of heavy centralization around a conservative papacy in Rome, and the deliberate creation of an insular and sectarian Catholic “counter-culture”. There was an obvious tension between this Ultramontanism and attempts at “inculturation”, that is, make Catholicism in Sweden seem as “Swedish” as possible.

The Jesuits in Sweden (most of whom were German immigrants) tried to have it both ways. While promoting strict obedience to Rome and theological orthodoxy, they nevertheless attempted to preach in Swedish, emphasize Swedish patriotism, celebrate Swedish Catholic saints from the Middle Ages, and so on. Ironically, when Rome ordered that the Jesuits stop their activities in Sweden, many recently converted Swedish Catholic laypersons refused to accept it, and petitioned the Roman hierarchy to change their decision – something as piquant as a lay rebellion in favor of a pro-papal fighting order, directed against Rome itself! The Jesuits themselves were unhappy with it, seeing it as an example of the “Lutheran” spirit of the Swedish converts.

Not all Swedish Catholics liked the “inculturation”. Upper class Catholics associated Catholicism with French high culture, and liked it that way. Apparently, the French School in Stockholm (Franska skolan) was originally a Catholic girls´ school. There may have been intrigues between pro-French and pro-German factions during World War I (when Sweden was neutral).

Some facts are actually quite funny (in a way). For instance, during the period when Catholicism was almost illegal in Sweden, the foremost Catholic in the country was…the queen consort (later dowager queen) Josefina! The reason? As a French immigrant, she was allowed to practice her Catholic faith during a time when Swedes were prohibited from attending Catholic masses and banished from the country if they converted. Years later, the Jesuits had considerable problem firing the Lutheran (!) organist in one of the Swedish Catholic churches, since he had gotten his position thanks to Josefina. It also turns out that many “Catholic” choirs in Sweden were Protestant for decades, since there simply weren´t enough Catholics to go around. The recalcitrant organist was eventually gotten rid of by denying him a pay rise (something Josefina had not provided for during her lifetime), at which point the man simply quit…

During the period in question, most Catholics in Sweden seems to have been relatively lowly immigrants from Germany, Italy and Poland (although some of the Germans later advanced socially). Most of the priests and nuns were also foreigners. At the same time, there were also upper class Catholics. The hierarchy had longstanding “diplomatic” connections with the Swedish court. 

The most colorful Catholic convert of the time, social climber Claes Lagergren, was on a friendly basis with virtually everyone: the papal court, the Jesuits, several Swedish kings, and even the Social Democratic leader Hjalmar Branting. (Judging by other sources, he was also friendly with Decadent – or perhaps decadent – artists.) Lagergren´s description of his conversion to Catholicism is weird. He claims that he simply wasn´t capable of confessing his sins to the priest, at which point *the priest* said “I have heard all your sins before” and started renumerating them one by one, to Lagergren´s great astonishment. This strange confession-by-proxy was then approved and Lagergren could become a member of the Church in good standing! It´s not clear to me why Lagergren converted, but he was fascinated by the old nobility, developed ultra-conservative political views, and loved the pompous rituals of late 19^th century Catholicism.

One interesting claim in the book is that Catholicism was seen as “the wave of the future” by many people during the 1920´s. World War I triggered a crisis in Protestant liberal theology, since the carnage of the war brought into question its strong belief in societal progress. The collapse of Wilhelmine Germany and its replacement with the Weimar Republic hit Protestantism more than Catholicism, since the former used to have good relations with the imperial court while having a much more indifferent membership base. The author doesn´t mention the rise of Communism and other forms of socialism during the interwar period, but surely this too could have made a staunchly conservative Church look attractive to people on the other side of the fence. Especially one that was international, had ancient roots and was strongly centralized. 

It´s difficult to make out why Swedes converted to Catholicism during this period, but the “teaching authority” of the Church and its claims to absolute dogmatic certainty was probably a strong factor, while Protestantism was seen as fractious and too liberal. The splendor of Catholic liturgy may have been another reason. I already mentioned that a strong interest in French culture was a factor in some cases.

With that, I close this somewhat eclectic review!