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Views from the Choir Loft

Catholic Liturgy in Secular Sweden

Guest Author · November 7, 2016

A guest article by Alexander Kegel, organist at St. Francis of Assisi Catholic parish in Stockholm, Sweden.|

690 TENTS ECENTLY, THE POPE visited Sweden. The main reason for this trip was the joint commemoration of the reformation, together with the Lutheran World Federation—and a lot could certainly be said about that, but not right now. However, the trip also included a mass with Sweden’s small Catholic community, which is quite unique. Sweden has only one Catholic diocese: the Catholic Diocese of Stockholm.

Our Bishop, Most Rev’d Anders Arborelius, is the shepherd of about 150,000 Catholics (mostly immigrants from all over the world), spread across the country. From the northern village of Lanavaara—where a community of nuns have their convent—it is a distance of 1850km to the southern city of Malmö, where the Pope celebrated Mass. That is roughly the same distance as between Malmö and Rome in Italy.

In this tiny yet widespread diocese, the status of the liturgy and church music is quite good and very interesting. Since 2008, there is—for the first time ever—a music director for the diocese, and he is doing a tremendous job! New organist jobs have appeared in numerous parishes around the country, workshops and courses are being held for organists, and our choirs & diocesan liturgies are usually good.

A good example of all this was the recent Mass with the Pope. A semi-annual choir weekend was planned for October, and it was decided that the participants of the choir weekend would sing during the Papal Mass a few weeks later. The results were excellent! The music included Missa de Angelis, “Jubilemus, exultemus” by François Couperin, and “O Saviour of the world” by Sir John Goss. I had the honor of singing the (Gregorian) Responsorial Psalm during the Mass, and the altar servers were mostly from the cathedral in Stockholm. 1 The liturgy was as beautiful as it can be in an outdoor stadium with 15,000 participants, and I was informed afterward that the Pope truly appreciated the music.

The Diocese has its own hymnal, called CECILIA, and the new edition from 2013 includes even more Gregorian melodies than the old one. There is very little “praise and worship” music in the parishes in Sweden and although the musical standard varies considerably, the music chosen is usually of good quality. Out of fourteen Mass ordinaries in the hymnal, ten are Gregorian (four of them Swedish adaptations), and a recent study of the usage of Gregorian chant in parishes around the country showed good results. One thing lacking is the use of propers, and although the Latin propers are being used to a degree in some parishes, the main problem is that there is no music set to the propers in Swedish. But that is also changing! There are several ongoing projects with the aim to release Swedish propers.

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I hope you have enjoyed this little glimpse into what can be done in a small diocese without big economic resources. With God’s help, we will continue the good work for the sacred liturgy and the Church.


We hope you enjoyed this guest article by Alexander Kegel.




NOTES FROM THIS ARTICLE:

1   The brilliant altar servers from my home parish in Gothenburg had already received the honor of serving during the Canonization Mass of Sweden’s recent saint, Elisabeth Hesselblad, in the Vatican

Opinions by blog authors do not necessarily represent the views of Corpus Christi Watershed.

Filed Under: Articles Last Updated: January 24, 2024

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President’s Corner

    Luis Martínez Must Go!
    Sevilla Cathedral (entry dated 13 December 1564): The chapter orders Luis Martínez, a cathedral chaplain, to stay away from the choirbook-stand when the rest of the singers gather around it to sing polyphony—the reason being that “he throws the others out of tune.” [Excerpt from “The Life of Father Francisco Guerrero.”]
    —Jeff Ostrowski
    Urgent! • We Desperately Need Funds!
    A few days ago, the president of Corpus Christi Watershed posted this urgent appeal for funds. Please help us make sure we’re never forced to place our content behind a paywall. We feel it’s crucial that 100% of our content remains free to everyone. We’re a tiny 501(c)3 public charity, entirely dependent upon the generosity of small donors. We have no endowment and no major donors. We run no advertisements and have no savings. We beg you to consider donating $4.00 per month. Thank you!
    —Jeff Ostrowski
    “Booklet of Eucharistic Hymns” (16 pages)
    I was asked to create a booklet for my parish to use during our CORPUS CHRISTI PROCESSION on 22 June 2025. Would you be willing to look over the DRAFT BOOKLET (16 pages) I came up with? I tried to include a variety of hymns: some have a refrain; some are in major, others in minor; some are metered, others are plainsong; some are in Spanish, some are in Latin, but most are in English. Normally, we’d use the Brébeuf Hymnal—but we can’t risk having our congregation carry those heavy books all over the city to various churches.
    —Jeff Ostrowski

Quick Thoughts

    Pope Pius XII Hymnal?
    Have you ever heard of the Pope Pius XII Hymnal? It’s a real book, published in the United States in 1959. Here’s a sample page so you can verify with your own eyes it existed.
    —Corpus Christi Watershed
    “Hybrid” Chant Notation?
    Over the years, many have tried to ‘simplify’ plainsong notation. The O’Fallon Propers attempted to simplify the notation—but ended up making matters worse. Dr. Karl Weinmann tried to do the same in the time of Pope Saint Pius X by replacing each porrectus. You can examine a specimen from his edition and see whether you agree he complicated matters. In particular, look at what he did with éxsules fílii Hévae.
    —Corpus Christi Watershed
    Antiphons Don’t Match?
    A reader wants to know why the Entrance and Communion antiphons in certain publications deviate from what’s prescribed by the GRADUALE ROMANUM published after Vatican II. Click here to read our answer. The short answer is: the Adalbert Propers were never intended to be sung. They were intended for private Masses only (or Masses without music). The “Graduale Parvum,” published by the John Henry Newman Institute of Liturgical Music in 2023, mostly uses the Adalbert Propers—but sometimes uses the GRADUALE text: e.g. Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul (29 June).
    —Corpus Christi Watershed

Random Quote

“In particular, today we must remember that our liturgy—celebrated according to the books promulgated by Saints Paul VI and John Paul II—must be preserved from any element from the ancient forms.”

— Bishops of Costa Rica —Hat tip to ‘Catholic Arena’

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