Bishop Fredrik Hansen Appointed Coadjutor of Oslo, Norway
Rev. Ronald D. Witherup, PSS, Rev. Paul A. Maillet, PSS, Very Rev. Daniel F. Moore, PSS, and Rev. Phillip J. Brown, PSS, with Bishop Fredrik Hansen.
On November 1, 2024, the Solemnity of All Saints, the Holy Father Pope Francis appointed Sulpician confrere Msgr. Fredrik Hansen, PSS (Cand.), JCD as Coadjutor Bishop of Oslo in his native Norway.
Msgr. Hansen had been a candidate for the U.S. Province of the Society of Saint Sulpice since 2022 and was serving as a faculty member and Dean of Seminarians at St. Mary’s Seminary & University in Baltimore. Before joining the Sulpicians, Msgr. Hansen, who was ordained a priest in 2007, had served in the Diplomatic Corps of the Holy See, most recently as Secretary and Deputy at the Permanent Observer Mission of the Holy See at the United Nations in New York.
Fr. Daniel Moore, Provincial Superior, said “It is with mixed emotions that I make this announcement, as it will mean losing a cherished colleague in priestly formation. However, the U.S. Province is honored to know that one of our confreres has been chosen to serve as a Bishop in his home diocese.”
In addition to the Provincial, a contingent of Sulpicians, faculty, and seminarians from St. Mary’s Seminary traveled to Oslo for Msgr. Hansen’s January 18 episcopal ordination.
Rev. Ronald D. Witherup, PSS, Rev. Paul A. Maillet, PSS, Very Rev. Daniel F. Moore, PSS, and Rev. Phillip J. Brown, PSS, along with Seminarians from St. Mary’s Seminary & University with Bishop Fredrik Hansen.
Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican’s Secretary of State, was the principal co-consecrator at St. Olav’s Cathedral. Bishop Hansen, a well-respected canonist, selected “Lex tua veritas” – “Your law is truth” – as his episcopal motto. He will automatically succeed Bishop Bernt Ivar Eidsvig, CRSA, in leading the increasingly diverse Catholic community within a predominantly Lutheran Norway, when the latter steps down.
Ad multos annos!