[Norway] First requiem mass since 1537

[praxiz]

http://www.aftenposten.no/english/local/article1011871.ece

First requiem since 1537

Roman Catholics held the first requiem mass since the 16th century in Norway's oldest cathedral on Wednesday in a tribute to Pope John Paul II and his work to unite Christians.

"This is a historic event," Bishop Finn Wagle of Norway's Lutheran state church told Reuters of the evening service in the 12th century Nidaros Cathedral in the city of Trondheim, in central Norway. "No Catholic requiem mass has been held here since the Reformation," Wagle said.

Denmark, which used to rule Norway, introduced the Reformation in 1537 by dissolving monasteries, confiscating church property and appointing Lutheran bishops.


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Ok so ... 468 years until next time, then?

Actually a funny thing ... the pope visited this cathedral in 1989, and it's currently roughly 200 meters away, in *that* direction. Small world.

[ClintonTyree]

1. A Requiem Mass lasts about that long, doesn't it?

468 years is about the correct length of a Requiem Mass, judged by my attendance at Catholic weddings and such. Or perhaps it just SEEMS that long. Either way, you won't catch MY patoot at one any time soon.

[izzie]

2. I can recall my mother in law saying I should not go to one and

then she would laugh. She always said they were to long for some one like me.

[Bread and Circus]

3. I've been in that Cathedral....back in 1993...neat place, Norway is

[KitSileya]

4. It's actually rather unusual.

The first time the Catholics were allowed to say Mass in the Cathedral after the reformation was on July 29, 1993 - 150 years after the return of the Catholic Church in Norway. The Catholic Church in Trondheim is rather small - masses are said in shifts so that everyone in the parish has a chance to attend on Sundays. There's been some discord between the two bishops, Catholic and Lutheran - 1993 saw the start of a sort of annual festival on the saint's day of Norway's patron saint, St. Olav, who is buried in the Cathedral. It was inspired and midwifed by the Catholics, while the Protestants both dismissed it as popish, and claimed their precendence - it was held on "their ground", after all. Soon, the Catholics were no longer allowed to borrow the Cathedral in primetime to celebrate mass on St.Olav's day, that time being claimed by the Protestants, whose church it admittedly now is, but who don't condone saints.

Anyway, being allowed to borrow the Cathedral for the requiem mass is a big ecumenical step.