History is being made among us these days. Over the weekend, Fathers Bene and Vinoth, two Priests of the Sacred Heart who will work on in our prelature, arrived. The third, Fr Michal, will hopefully come soon, when UDI awakens from its slumber. I am sorry I am not with you to greet them. Other obligations keep me away this weekend, alas. I ask you to welcome our new priests warmly. Courageously they have come a long way, into a wholly new setting to become one with us, to serve the Church and proclaim the Gospel.

Our parish was established by another congregation of the Sacred Heart 150 years ago. The first post-Reformation Catholic church here was dedicated to the Sacred Heart. The founder of our new priests’ congregation, Fr Léon Dijon, visited Trondheim in 1863. He wrote then: ‘Trondheim was once upon a time a holy city. Countless miracles were wrought on the tomb of St Olav in the cathedral. The city and Munkholmen teemed with monks and nuns. Now there is only a small Catholic mission, but the faith advances. With all my heart I will pray to St Olav for the conversion of the good people of Norway.’ ‘Great things take time’, Cardinal Newman liked to say. Now the Dehonians are here. May we help one another, in the name of Christ, to advance on the way to conversion and holiness.

+fr Erik Varden
Bishop of Trondheim