Bishop-elect admits to being astonished at his new role

CNS photo/Simon Caldwell

Fr Erik Varden OSCO,  a Trappist monk at Mount Saint Bernard Abbey, who was recently announced as the new Bishop of Trondheim in Norway,  has expressed his ‘astonishment’ at the surprise news.

The Norwegian born 45 year old will take up his new post on November 1st.  He’s been Abbot of Mount Saint Bernard for four years – a Cistercian monastery in rural Leicestershire, and the only Trappist house in England.

Asked for his reaction to hearing the announcement from Rome he replied:   

“Astonished by the Holy Father’s appointment, I am at the same time sad at the thought of what I am being asked to leave behind and excited at the prospect of the task ahead. Christianity was first brought to Norway by monastic missionaries from the British Isles, so I shall be following an established route. The monastic life is missionary in its essence in so far as it strives to make the presence of Christ embodied. It will be a joyful challenge to articulate that call in a different way, now, but I hope and intend to remain a monk, to share the riches of our heritage with the people I am called to serve.”

The Abbey added: “The community is very sad at losing its Abbot but wishes him well in his new position.”

Abbot Erik,  the son of a country vet in Norway was not born a Catholic but was received into the Church as a young adult. He went to Atlantic College in Wales and studied theology and philosophy at the University of Cambridge, where he received a doctorate and later studied at the Pontifical Oriental Institute in Rome.  

Dom Erik entered the Order of Cistercians of the Strict Observance in his mid twenties,   making his solemn profession at Mount Saint Bernard Abbey five years later.   He was ordained a priest in  2011.  Subsequently,  Dom Erik taught at the international Benedictine pontifical university, the Pontificio Ateneo Sant’Anselmo in Rome, working concurrently for the Scandinavian section of Vatican Radio.

Afterwards, Dom Erik returned to Mount Saint Bernard. The Benedictine Confederation also commented on the announcement of his episcopal appointment:

“All of us in the Benedictine Confederation, and in particular the Benedictine family of Sant’Anselmo, express our heartfelt congratulations to Bishop-Prelate Elect Dom Erik Varden OCSO, assuring him of our remembrance of him in prayer, for God’s great blessings on his new ministry of service in the Church.”

Recently, the Bishop-elect has moved into spiritual writing, and last year published the critically-acclaimed “The Shattering of Loneliness”, which examines his search for God.

“I think that monastic tradition sits on, as steward, such a tremendous wealth of insight and wisdom – practical wisdom – that the Church and the world has not just forgotten but has probably never known about,” he told The Tablet in an interview last year.