‘The truth that has been given to us’: Norway’s Bishop Varden on speaking about sexuality
In March, the bishops of the five Nordic countries issued a pastoral letter affirming the Catholic Church’s teaching on human sexuality.
“This covenantal sign, the rainbow, is claimed in our time as the symbol of a movement that is at once political and cultural,” the bishops wrote. “We declare dissent, however, when the movement puts forward a view of human nature that abstracts from the embodied integrity of personhood, as if physical gender were accidental.”
Bishop Erik Varden of Trondheim, Norway, spoke to CNA about the role of a bishop and why the Nordic bishops’ conference chose to publish a letter on sexuality and transgenderism at this time.
“Obviously the topic has been on our radar for a long time, as it has been on anyone’s radar,” Varden said via phone call last week. “The importance of saying something constructive has been obvious to us.”
The bishops discussed the issue at their fall 2022 meeting, and one member wrote a draft letter that was discussed at their March assembly.
“We were substantially in agreement about what we wanted to say and how we wanted to say it,” he said. “In terms of the substance I think we were entirely agreed.”
He said the pastoral letter was written for the people of their dioceses.
“But I suppose it’s part of this whole synodal dynamic,” he added. “The point is that everyone’s voice should be heard. We felt that we had something that we wanted and needed to contribute to an ongoing debate.”
Varden, 48, is a Trappist monk and spiritual writer. He was consecrated bishop of Trondheim, in central Norway, in 2020.
He noted that in discussions of gender and sexuality, “everything is subjectivized” and focused on people’s individual stories and wounds — giving the idea that everyone “has his or her own truth.”
“What we wanted to make clear was simply that we’re not sending this letter as eight individual blokes who agreed on something and then decided to make this known to the world,” he explained, “but that we have been commissioned to a teaching ministry, and that ministry isn’t about spouting our own opinions but about teaching and expounding as clearly as we can the truth that has been given to us.”
“The notion of the deposit of faith is very deep in the Christian understanding of transmission. It’s an extremely helpful reminder of what a bishop’s task is, which is to keep this deposit, which is vast and expansive, and introduce people to the richness contained in it.”
