A reader sends us the following report from the Diocese of Copenhagen, where the first traditional confirmations since the liturgical reforms were celebrated yesterday:
For the first time since the post-Conciliar liturgical reforms, a Danish bishop has conferred the Sacrament of Confirmation to young people in his own diocese, according to the Traditional form of the Roman Rite. This event took place yesterday, on the Feast of the Transfiguration of the Lord, in St. Andrew's church, in a nortern suburb of Copenhagen (note: this church was one of the first built after Catholics were again allowed to practice their faith in public, after more than 300 years of Lutheran suppresion, from 1534 to 1849).
The local ordinary, Bishop Czeslaw Kozon (59), is well known to Catholics who support the traditional rite and the Holy Father's recent initiatives to facilitate their access to it within normal parishes. He has celebrated several ponitifical masses in the traditional rite - including one in his own Cathedral, in January 2010. He had already conferred both Holy Orders and Confirmation in this rite - but, up to now, only in other dioceses. The development of the traditional community in Copenhagen has been steady but, in a country with few Catholics, relatively slow. This past Saturday's event is therefore a source of great encouragement and hope. [Image source: Katolsk Tradition, in our sidebar.]
