The Catholic Church in Norway has bid farewell to King Harald V by expressly praying for “the repose of his soul and for his participation in the resurrection of Christ”. One day after the monarch’s official funeral, celebrated according to the rite of the Church of Norway, Oslo’s Catholic Cathedral of St. Olav hosted this Thursday, 10 September, a solemn requiem for the king, who died on 28 August at the age of 89.
Since the sovereign’s death, Catholic Bishop of Oslo Fredrik Hansen had placed the Catholic response in prayer for his soul. “Our prayer today, and in these days, is that King Harald may share in this resurrection,” the prelate stated when explaining the meaning of the Masses offered for the monarch.
“May the resurrection of Jesus become our resurrection”
Bishop Hansen recalled that the Catholic liturgy for the dead repeatedly expresses the Christian hope in the resurrection.
“We hear it again and again in the liturgy of the Masses for the dead: this hope that the resurrection of Jesus may become our resurrection,” the bishop explained.
The prelate noted that both Sacred Scripture and the Church’s tradition speak of “a hope so great and so clear: the hope of the resurrection.”
“May the resurrection of Jesus become ours. And therefore our prayer today, and in these days, is that King Harald may share in this resurrection,” he added.
Since the monarch’s death, the Catholic Diocese of Oslo asked its priests to celebrate Masses for his soul and placed images of the king draped in black in the churches so the faithful could pray, light candles and leave flowers.
A Catholic requiem after the state funeral
The Catholic farewell reached its principal celebration this Thursday in the Cathedral of St. Olav in Oslo, where the diocesan requiem for Harald V was held at 11:00 a.m.
The Mass was celebrated in English by Cardinal Christophe Pierre, sent to Norway as the representative of Leo XIV for the monarch’s funeral rites.
The prayer prepared by the Catholic Church for these days reads:
“Lord God, heavenly Father, you are King of kings and ruler of the nations. Hear our pleas for mercy for your servant, our king Harald V. Grant that he whom you placed at the head of your people in Norway may dwell in the land of peace and light and share the inheritance with your saints.”
The Catholic celebration took place the day after the state funeral that, on Wednesday, gathered the royal family, Norwegian authorities, representatives of other royal houses and foreign delegations in Oslo.
“King Harald was always with his people”
In his message after the death was announced, Bishop Hansen remembered Harald V not only as head of state but also in his relationship with Norway’s small Catholic community.
“Like all Norwegians, I received the news with deep sorrow. I pray for his soul and invite our entire diocese to do the same: Grant him, O Lord, eternal rest, and let perpetual light shine upon him. May he rest in peace. Amen,” he wrote.
The bishop highlighted that Harald had shown his closeness to Catholics on several occasions. He recalled the king’s condolences after the deaths of St. John Paul II, Benedict XVI and Francis, and his attendance in 2019 at the requiem held in Oslo’s Catholic Church of St. John for the victims of the terrorist attacks on Christian churches in Sri Lanka.
“He cared about us,” Hansen stated.
The bishop also recalled the role played by Harald V after the 22 July 2011 attacks in Norway: “We, as Catholics, saw then the same thing all Norwegians saw: that King Harald was always with his people. Our grief was his grief.”
The Christian faith of Harald V
Bishop Hansen also stressed the importance Christian faith held in the monarch’s life.
Harald V began his reign in 1991 and, months after ascending the throne, received, together with Queen Sonja, a solemn blessing in Nidaros Cathedral in Trondheim, built over the tomb of St. Olaf.
The king himself later explained the importance that moment had for him: receiving “God’s blessing” upon his task and kneeling in the same place where his father and grandfather had previously received that blessing had been for him “a great source of strength.”
For Hansen, that episode was “one of the many expressions of the importance Christian faith held in the life of King Harald.”
Catholic priest Torbjørn Holt also maintained, in a reflection published before the funeral rites, that Harald possessed, in his personal experience, “a deep and integrated Christian faith” and that his convictions were manifested not only in explicit references to God but also in the way he exercised his royal office.
“The traces of faith in the king’s life will probably be expressed both in what he did and in what he said,” he noted.
Leo XIV sent Cardinal Christophe Pierre
The Holy See was represented at the funeral rites by Cardinal Christophe Pierre, former apostolic nuncio to Mexico and the United States, sent as Leo XIV’s representative.
The cardinal attended the official funeral on Wednesday and celebrated the requiem this Thursday in Oslo’s Catholic Cathedral of St. Olav. With him was Fredrik Hansen, Bishop of Oslo and president of the Catholic Church structure in Norway.
Leo XIV had conveyed his condolences to the new king, Haakon VIII, after his father’s death and assured his prayers “for the eternal rest of the late king.”
The Pontiff also recalled the “many years of dedicated service to the Kingdom” of Harald V and invoked upon the royal family and the Norwegian people “the blessings of consolation and peace from Almighty God.”
The official funeral was celebrated according to the Lutheran rite
The state funeral took place on Wednesday, 9 September, in Oslo Cathedral, belonging to the Church of Norway.
The ceremony followed the funeral rite of this Evangelical Lutheran community and was led by Olav Fykse Tveit, president of the Bishops’ Conference of the Church of Norway, with the participation of the Lutheran “bishop” of Oslo, Sunniva Gylver.
Fredrik Hansen attended the ceremony representing the Norwegian Catholic Church, while Cardinal Pierre did so on behalf of Leo XIV.
Representatives of 85 countries accompanied the monarch that day, according to the Royal House. After the service in the cathedral, the coffin was taken to Akershus Fortress, where a private ceremony was held before it was placed in the Royal Mausoleum.
Harald V rests there alongside other members of the Norwegian royal family after more than 35 years of reign.
For Norwegian Catholics, the farewell did not end with the burial. Even before the funeral rites, Father Holt had summarized the meaning of the celebration that would take place the following day at St. Olav: “We give thanks to God for King Harald, for his life and his example, for his faithful service to the people and the country until the end of his life. And we ask that God receive him into his joy.”
“Grant him, O Lord, eternal rest, and let perpetual light shine upon him.”