• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Corpus Christi Watershed

“What earlier generations held as sacred, remains sacred and great for us too…” Pope Benedict XVI (7 July 2007)

  • Our Team
  • Catholic Hymnal
  • Jogues Missal
  • Site Map
  • Donate
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.

667 sw 665 Sw

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 1, 2020

Subscribe to the CCW Mailing List

Primary Sidebar

Corpus Christi Watershed

Quick Thoughts

4 March 2021 • Can you spare 15 seconds?

Due to Covid-19, California has basically been under “lock down” for 11 months, and these restrictions have had quite a detrimental effect on our choral programs. We are frequently limited to just 2-3 singers, on account of regulations by the government and our Archdiocese. However, although the number of singers is quite small, I was struck by the beauty of the singing last Sunday. Listen to this 15-second live excerpt and see if you agree?

—Jeff Ostrowski
3 March 2021 • “A policeman” — really?

According to Monsignor Frederick R. McManus, there were “policemen” serving the Sanhedrin in the time of Our Blessed Lord. Look at this awful translation in the 1966 “Saint Andrew Bible Missal” from 1966. Yuck!

—Jeff Ostrowski
Surprising Popularity!

One of our most popular downloads has proven to be the organ accompaniment to “The Monastery Hymnal” (131 pages). This book was compiled, arranged, and edited by Achille P. Bragers, who studied at the Lemmensinstituut (Belgium) about thirty years before that school produced the NOH. Bragers might be considered an example of Belgium “Stile Antico” whereas Flor Peeters and Jules Van Nuffel represented Belgium “Prima Pratica.” You can download the hymnal by Bragers at this link.

—Jeff Ostrowski

Random Quote

“As liturgical art, church music is obliged to conform to ecclesiastical law. But to construct artificial polarities here, between legalistic order and a dynamic church music, demanded by the alleged needs of the day, would be to forsake the foundation of a music rooted in liturgical experience. What is in fact the pastoral value of the shoddy, the profane, the third-rate?”

— Dr. Robert Skeris (1996)

Recent Posts

  • A Beautiful Lenten Hymn • “How It Sounds”
  • Two Recent Talks on the Liturgy
  • 4 March 2021 • Can you spare 15 seconds?
  • Now Online! • “Missale Romanum” (1615 edition)
  • “Ash Wednesday” • Banned by YouTube after 93,000 Views!

Copyright © 2021 Corpus Christi Watershed · Charles Garnier on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in

Corpus Christi Watershed is a 501(c)3 public charity dedicated to exploring and embodying as our calling the relationship of religion, culture, and the arts. This non-profit organization employs the creative media in service of theology, the Church, and Christian culture for the enrichment and enjoyment of the public.