On Wednesday 14th of June in Rome, at Shalom Catholic Community International Headquarter, a great meeting took place, between the new cardinal Anders Arborelius, Bishop of Stockholm, Sweden, the founder of Shalom Catholic Community, Moysés Azevedo, the International Assistant of the Community, Fr. Cristiano Pinheiro and the shalom missionaries of this house.
His Grace Anders Arborelius will be elected cardinal on next June consistory. It’s the first ever red hat for the tiny Catholic Church in the majority Lutheran nation, which Pope Francis visited on last October for the joint commemoration of the 500th anniversary of the Reformation.
Mons. Arborelius is the first bishop of Stockholm with Swedish origins since the Reformation.
Born in a Lutheran family, in 1969 he converted to Catholicism when he was 20, and two years later, he entered the Order of the Barmen Carmelite Fathers at the convent of Norraby in southern Sweden. He was drawn to the Catholic Church and to Catholic Spirituality reading the Works of St. Therese of Lisieux and the mystics of Carmel.
In December 1998 at 49, he was consecrated bishop at St. Catharine’s Catholic Cathedral in Stockholm by his predecessor, Mgr. Hubertus Brandenburg. He has been bishop of Stockholm for 19 years and will be the first Swedish Cardinal in the history of Church.
Moysés Azevedo, Shalom Community founder has met the “neo-cardinal” in the assemblies of the former “Pontifical Council for the Laity” in the Vatican. Last year, Fr. Cristiano Pinheiro, Shalom Catholic Community International Assistant visited Stockholm and from this first meeting the cardinal and the Community started a discernment about Shalom Catholic Community missionaries presence in order to collaborate in the evangelization in Scandinavia, especially on youth.