Bishop Erik Varden, OCSO, a Cistercian Trappist, converted to Catholicism in 2002, and, after years of study at Cambridge and Rome – he is an expert in Syriac – was ordained to the priesthood on the feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel in 2011, and a decade later, was consecrated bishop of Trondheim, Norway on October 3rd, 2020.
Catholics comprise only about 3.8% of the population of Norway, the Faith nearly wiped out by the Protestant revolt. But it’s growing, slowly, and finding a foothold once again, led by such as Bishop Varden. He was chosen this last February to given the Lenten retreat for Pope Leo and the Curia, and his reflections, found here, based on the thought of Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, are concise, profound and relevant, bringing together old and new.
Readers may peruse them with great profit, as part of our spiritual reading for Lent.
