Norway: diocese of Trondheim, Erik Varden ordained bishop in October in the church where St Olav is buried

Erik Varden, the Norwegian who on 1st October 2019 Pope Francis had appointed leader of the prelature of Central Norway, will be ordained on 3rd October 2020 in the church where St Olav is buried, in Trondheim. The ordination, which at first should have been held on 4th January, had been postponed to a future date for “health reasons” of Varden and he had been granted a “sabbatical time to find new strength”, as explained by a release posted on the website of the diocese of Oslo. The 46-year-old Norwegian, who first joined the Catholic church in 1992, has been a member of the Cistercian order since 2002; he made his solemn profession in 2007, he was ordained priest in 2011 and since 2015 he has been abbot at Mount Saint Bernhard Abbey, in Leicestershire (England). Now, a release from the bishop of Oslo, Berndt Eisvig, sets a new date for the ordination, which will thus bring a new bishop, after 11 years of a vacant see, ruled by mgr. Eisvig himself, to Trondheim, which is home to approximately 15 thousand Catholics. It will be the first Catholic episcopal ordination on St Olav’s tomb since the Reformation.
Valentina Bombelli