TheCatholic Church in Finland (Finnish:Katolinen kirkko Suomessa) is part of the worldwideCatholic Church, under the spiritual leadership of thePope inRome.
As of 2018[update], there were more than 15,000 registered Catholics inFinland out of a total population of 5.5 million. There were also an estimated 10,000 unregistered Catholics in the country. Of the more than 6000 Catholic families in the country, half were Finnish and the rest from the international community.[1] Due to the small number of Catholics in Finland, the whole country forms a singlediocese, theCatholic Diocese of Helsinki.
As of 2018[update], there were five native-born Finnish priests, three of whom work in Finland. There are more than 30 priests from different countries serving in Finland.[2] Since the 2019 retirement ofTeemu Sippo, the first native-born Finnish Catholic bishop since theLutheran Reformation, the Diocese of Helsinki is now under the leadership of Spanish bishop Most Rev. Raimo Goyarrola Belda.
The Catholic Church in Finland is active inecumenical matters and is a member of theFinnish Ecumenical Council, even though the worldwide Catholic Church is not a member of theWorld Council of Churches.[3]
Catholicism was the first form of Christianity introduced into the area of present-day Finland in the 12th century.[4] In the 16th century, Finland, as part of Sweden, took part in theLutheran Reformation after which Catholicism lost almost all ground in the area.
The first Catholic religious service in Finland following the death of the Catholic KingJohn III of Sweden in 1592 was celebrated in 1796 in Turku by the Apostolic Vicar ofSweden, the Italian-born FatherPaolo Moretti [it].[5]
A parish was established in 1799 inVyborg in the Russian part ofOld Finland. After the rest of Finland became part of the Russian Empire in 1812, the parish covered the wholeGrand Duchy of Finland. There were about 3000 Catholics in 1830. Until the 1860s, all the priests serving in Finland were LithuanianDominicans. The parish of Helsinki was founded in 1856, possibly due to the influence of the Governor GeneralFriedrich Wilhelm von Berg's Italian wife, Leopoldina Cicogna Mozzoni (1786 –Warsaw 17 February 1874).St. Henry's Cathedral in Helsinki was finished in 1860.
In 1882 all the German priests and nuns were expelled. All foreign priests were expelled again in 1912. AfterFinland's independence and the departure of Russian military forces, which had included many Poles and Lithuanians, the Catholic Church lost most of its members.[citation needed]
In 1920 anapostolic vicariate was established in Finland. A parish inTurku was established in 1926, and in 1927 a parish inTerijoki. The Government granted the Catholic Church in Finland the status of religious community in 1929. Finland established diplomatic relations with theHoly See in 1942[6] andPope Pius XII donated a significant sum of money to Finnish war orphans.[citation needed] After the war, the parishes in Vyborg and Terijoki, which had been located in territories that were ceded to theUSSR, were moved toLahti, and a new parish was founded in 1949 inJyväskylä.
TheChurch of the Assumption of Mary was finished in Helsinki in 1954. The following year the apostolic vicariate was raised to adiocese. A parish inTampere was established in 1957, a parish inKouvola in 1985, and a parish inOulu in 1992.
Catholic Church movements and groups are also active in Finland. One of these, theNeocatechumenal Way has established twoRedemptoris Mater seminaries in Finland and maintains a presence both in Helsinki and in other towns, most notablyOulu.
A notable Catholic Finn in the early 21st century is the former head of the nationalistFinns Party,Timo Soini.
Before the year 1955, Finland was anapostolic vicariate headed by an apostolic vicar, who was technically not the Bishop of Helsinki, but thetitular bishop of atitular see, which is a defunct Roman Catholic diocese.
| Apostolic Vicars of Finland | Tenure | Additional Information | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Johannes Michiel Buckx [fi] | May 23, 1923 – July 26 1933 | Titular Bishop of Doliche | |
 | Willem Petrus Bartholomaeus Cobben [fi] | December 19, 1933 – February 25, 1955 | Titular Bishop of Amathus in Palaestina. Appointed Bishop of Helsinki. |
| Bishops of Helsinki | Tenure | Additional Information | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Willem Petrus Bartholomaeus Cobben [fi] | February 25, 1955 – June 29, 1967 | Resigned |
 | Paul Verschuren [fi] | June 29, 1967 – September 18, 1998 | Resigned |
 | Józef Wróbel [fi] | November 30, 2000 – June 28, 2008 | Appointed Auxiliary Bishop of Lublin |
 | Teemu Sippo | June 16, 2009 – May 20, 2019 | First Finnish-born bishop in Finland sinceArvid Kurck (1464–1522). Resigned. |
 | Raimo Goyarrola | Since September 29, 2023 | Incumbent |
There are eight Catholic parishes in Finland:
Masses are also celebrated at the sub centres of the above parishes and some Lutheran and Orthodox Churches on alternative weeks. There is a Catholic Church retreat and education centre named Stella Maris in Lohja.[7]
There is a high demand for establishing a new parish in Northern Finland atRovaniemi which is a major tourist destination inLapland.[8]
TheBridgettine order is active in Finland with convents in Turku and Koisjärvi, nearLohja. ACarmelite convent, theMonastery of Our Lady of Mount Carmel in Finland was established inEspoo in 1988. The Dominican friars run a house in central Helsinki, home to a large library specializing in Christian studies and ecumenism namedStudium Catholicum [fi].[9][10]
The ownership of the relics ofBishop Henrik caused some controversy between theNational Board of Antiquities, the Catholic Church in Finland, and theEvangelical Lutheran Church of Finland. In 1998 the pastor of theCathedral of Saint Henry in Helsinki wished to relocate Henrik's relics to the Cathedral, although they were previously exhibited in the LutheranCathedral of Turku.[11] TheNational Board of Antiquities eventually chose to place the relics in the Cathedral of Saint Henry in Helsinki.[12]
Because half of the Roman Catholics in Finland are members of the international community, the Catholic Mass is regularly celebrated in 20 other languages in addition to Finnish. The languages beyond Finnish in which the Mass is celebrated include Swedish, English, Polish, Vietnamese, Tagalog, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, German, Malayalam, Tamil and Hungarian.
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