History
The Catholic Church was the established church of Sweden from the Middle Ages until the Protestant Reformation in the 16th century, when King Gustav I broke off relations.
He established the Church of Sweden, based on the teachings of Martin Luther.
In 1654, Christina, Queen of Sweden caused much scandal when she abdicated her throne in order to convert to Catholicism. She is buried in the Vatican.
In the 1770's, the prominent Liberal Anders Chydenius - himself a Lutheran priest - prevailed upon King Gustav III to leglaise the immigration of Catholics (as well as Jews) into Sweden. However, the Lutheran Church remained the only legal church in Sweden until the middle of the 19th century, when other churches were allowed. Even then, the Lutheran Church remained a state church until it was disestablished in 2000.
Prior to this, the Catholic Church had only existed in the form of independent congregations in Sweden, for example, the Diocese of Stockholm which was founded in 1953. The changes in 2000 made it possible to become officially registered and recognized by the government of Sweden.
Read more about this topic: Roman Catholic Church In Sweden
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“When the landscape buckles and jerks around, when a dust column of debris rises from the collapse of a block of buildings on bodies that could have been your own, when the staves of history fall awry and the barrel of time bursts apart, some turn to prayer, some to poetry: words in the memory, a stained book carried close to the body, the notebook scribbled by hand—a center of gravity.”
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