Norwegian Bishop Erik Varden declares the end of secularization in Scandinavia: “There is nothing left to secularize.” Young people are hungering for depth
Newsroom (24/11/2025 Gaudium Press ) “The age of secularization is over in Scandinavia,” says Bishop Erik Varden, O.C.S.O., the Norwegian Trappist monk who serves as Prelate of Trondheim and President of the Nordic Bishops’ Conference. “There is simply nothing left to secularize.”
In an exclusive interview with the German theological review Communio published on November 19, the 51-year-old bishop – the first Norwegian-born Catholic bishop of Trondheim since the Reformation – describes what he calls “a tectonic shift in the opposite direction.”
“Young people are longing for substance,” Varden explains, speaking from his office overlooking the Nidaros Cathedral. “I see it every week: they come faithfully to carefully prepared, beautifully celebrated Eucharists. The trend is clear and constantly growing.”
Raised in a non-practicing Lutheran family in one of the world’s most secular nations, Varden converted to Catholicism in 1993, entered the Trappist abbey of Mount St Bernard in England in 2002, was ordained priest in 2011, and was appointed by Pope Francis to lead the northernmost territorial prelature in the world in 2019.
He continues: “Sixteen- and seventeen-year-olds come to my office or to the cathedral bookshop with the deepest existential questions: Why do I exist? What is the meaning of my life? Do I have a significance that goes beyond my feelings? Is there such a thing as ultimate meaning? Does love have a purpose? When you say you believe in Jesus Christ, what do you actually believe?”
According to the bishop, many of these young people are driven by a strikingly empirical observation. “They look at their parents, uncles, and aunts who have everything – comfort, money, freedom – and yet are not truly happy. That emptiness speaks louder than any sermon.”
Although surveys from the Pew Research Center continue to show religious practice becoming rarer across Scandinavia, Varden pushes back firmly.
“That statement does not correspond to my empirical observations,” he says. “Not only in Norway, but in every country that has gone through long processes of laicization, I notice a growing religious interest among the young. It is not yet a majority phenomenon, but the trend is unmistakable and rising. Young people have little patience for empty or sentimental discourse – and that is a very good thing.”
Across the border in Sweden, the Catholic Church has recorded significant increases in baptisms, marriages, and adult conversions in recent years. While immigration plays a role, native Swedish conversions are also rising.
Max Martin Skalenius, co-founder of the traditional Catholic youth movement Helige Eriks Legion and vice-president of Sweden’s Catholic Youth, offers a striking testimony: “Contrary to what one might expect, the Swedish-born clergy are not sliding into the progressive trends we often see in countries like Germany. Probably because we have witnessed real madness in the rest of society in recent years. Our priests are becoming more faithful, stricter, more traditional – and that gives us enormous hope.”
Bishop Varden sees the hunger for transcendence extending far beyond church walls.
“The fact that human beings carry within themselves a desire for the unlimited is evident even in very secular discourse – most recently in transhumanism,” he notes. “People are looking for eternity in technology, in ideology, in experiences. But the Church still offers something unique: a space where we can face life as it really is – in all its beauty and grandeur – and discover that it has been embraced by a love that will never end.”
When asked whether this marks the beginning of a new Christian spring in the North, the bishop smiles cautiously.
“It’s too early to call it a spring,” he says. “But the ice is definitely breaking.”
- Raju Hasmukh with files from Infocatholica
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