Boom: Explosive Growth in Number of Catholics Requires New Cathedral in Norway

This is a nice problem to have to solve.

Details (via Google translate):

With faulty acoustics and its 200 seats, the former cathedral of St. Olav, consecrated in 1973 no longer met the needs of the Catholic community in Trondheim, Norway’s third largest city.

While in 1973 there were only 500 Catholics in the city and its surroundings, they are now more than 6,000, arrived with the oil boom and economic prosperity. The city also has a technical university that attracts foreign students and researchers. “Today there are more than 25% of Norwegian origin” among registered Catholics in the diocese of Trondheim, observes the parish priest, Egil P. Mogstad. Among the hundred nationalities, Poles represent over half of the faithful.

Also, the new St. Olav’s Cathedral, under construction since the fall, is it welcomed by the Mayor of Trondheim, the Labor Rita Ottervik as “a symbol of integration” for his town of about 180,000 inhabitants. In the future building, which is scheduled to open in spring 2017, some 500 faithful can attend Masses celebrated in eight languages. “It would have been difficult to build largest in the city center, on the site of the ancient  cathedral,” says Fr. Mogstad.

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Image: La-Croix.com / katolsk.no