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The Mission.
Our mission is simple: one app, three languages - Swedish, Norwegian, and Danish.
Depending on the user’s choice, the app appears in their chosen language. Local priests from each country guide users through Bible readings, podcasts, prayers, and lessons from the Catechism, helping them grow in understanding of the Gospel and the richness of the faith.
The goal is to give the Catholic minority in Scandinavia, one of the worlds most secular areas, a deeper understanding of the True Living Word, enabling them to go out and share it in the world.
The app’s software architecture is complete. We are now working to secure funding to create the content, particularly for the audio production of teachings, lessons, and formation that will empower Catholics across the Nordic countries.
Bringing the faith back to Scandinavia, a region so in need of Christ’s teaching, is a challenge, but one we believe is worth taking on.
"I do not boast of preaching the Gospel, since it is a duty with which I am charged... It would go hard with me indeed if I did not preach the Gospel".
- Saint Ansgarius, Apostle to the Scandinavians, Canonized: February 3, 865
“I have not stopped learning the language… so that I may preach to them in their own tongue.”
-St. Francis Xavier
St. Ansgarius,
Apostle to the Scandinavians
The year 2026 marks the 1200th anniversary
of the beginning of his mission to Scandinavia.
This mission is appropriately inspired by him, as the year 2026 marks the 1200th anniversary of the beginning of his mission to Scandinavia. What is striking is how closely his life reflects the reality the Catholic Church still faces in Scandinavia today.
Over 1,200 years ago, when Saint Ansgarius set out for the North as a young missionary, Scandinavia was not an easy place to evangelize. It was distant, divided into hostile Viking factions, and deeply rooted in pagan traditions. The people did not know Christ, and they were not waiting for Him. However, young Saint Ansgarius, at the age of 25, was ready to evangelize for the faith.
Saint Ansgarius was born into a noble family near Amiens and was educated at the Benedictine monastery of Corbie after his mother’s death. There, he was formed by prayer and discipline. This is also where he discovered his calling; to bring the Gospel to lands like Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. At the time, these lands lay at the very edge of the world known to Christendom.
In 826, he joined an evangelizing mission alongside King Harald Klak of Denmark, who had recently been baptized by the Franks. Although this effort failed in fully converting Scandinavia, it began the process of creating a bridge between the pagan society of the north, and Christianity, and opening the door for further missionary efforts. Ansgarius himself did not give up. In 829, he traveled to Sweden, where King Björn allowed Christian missionaries to enter. In Birka, he preached, gathered a small community of believers, and established one of the first Christian footholds in Scandinavia.
In 831, he was appointed Archbishop of Hamburg and given responsibility for the northern missions. But his work was fragile, dependent on uncertain political alliances, marked by resistance, and sustained with very limited means.
In 845, disaster struck. Viking forces attacked Hamburg, destroying the city, its churches, and Ansgarius’s monastery. They burned his texts and scattered his works; years of effort were lost overnight. Many left the mission behind, but Saint Ansgarius diligently continued his work.
With almost nothing left, Ansgarius moved to Bremen and slowly began again. Through patience and persistence, he gained the trust of Danish rulers and secured permission to build churches and preach openly, even if it was only as a tolerated minority faith. When he died in 865, Christianity was still fragile in the North. It would take more than 200 years before the faith fully took hold in Scandinavia.
His work was never easy, never secure, and rarely rewarded with immediate success. That same reality remains today.
Mission Ansgarius does not seek sudden change. Our goal is simpler and more necessary: to support Catholics in Scandinavia so they can remain in the faith, live it confidently, and share it with others.
Through this app, we make the Gospel accessible in three languages, so that step by step, the faith can take root again.
The Experience
of Being Catholic in Scandinavia
Father Daniel on being a Catholic priest in Denmark
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Father Daniel,
- Spiritual Director of Mission Ansgarius
The language of faith is something that always strikes me when I meet Americans. There is a natural openness and vocabulary around religion that feels very different from what we see in Denmark.
It’s also something I recognise when talking with people in the parish. I can hear in their language that their knowledge of the faith is coming from the English speaking world. Instead of saying "skriftemål", they might say the English word "confession". It’s difficult to explain, but it creates a bit of a distance to the faith.
I don’t think that people who have not travelled in Scandinavia can fully understand the extent of the situation, but a Danish poll once asked whether people would rather overhear someone talking about faith or about sex in public. The result was clear: it was considered far more uncomfortable and taboo to hear people talk about faith than about sex.
I think that says a lot about the mindset here.
Scandinavia – including Denmark – is one of the regions that was strongly impacted by the Protestant Reformation. The King of Denmark at the time saw it as politically beneficial to leave the Catholic Church, so the shift was largely a top-down decision. As a result, the country went from being almost entirely Catholic to almost entirely Protestant.
This change was not rooted in theology or in a genuine desire within the Danish Church to break away, but political reasoning. Without a strong connection to the Catholic Church’s fifteen hundred years of theology, the Danish Protestant Church quickly became somewhat vague and weakened. Quickly, the culture around religion itself also became something unusual, uncomfortable, and even taboo, reduced to a topic you’re not really supposed to talk about.
Today, this is not only a challenge for Catholics in Denmark, but for Christians of all denominations. The typical response to someone who believes is: “That’s fine. You can believe it, but please don’t talk to me about it. Keep it private.”
I am convinced that Mission Ansgarius can be a valuable tool, not only for Scandinavian Catholics, but for other Christians too, helping them develop a deeper understanding of their faith and giving them the language and confidence to speak about it with others.
Travelling Denmark as a Catholic Tourist
Over the last 6 months I have, as part of my job, travelled across Europe, and have spent an extensive amount of time in Denmark.
At one point, I found myself at a Danish dinner party. During a casual conversation, I mentioned a Catholic app. The person I was speaking to looked at me and asked: “Catholic? What is that?”
I was born and raised Catholic in the United States. I’m not naive, I know not everyone shares our faith, and I know that not everyone knows Christ. But to meet someone who had never even heard of, or understood, the largest religious community in the world was striking.
Where do you even begin with a question like that?
The history? The Eucharist? The person of Jesus Christ?
I found myself at a loss for words.
"The person I was speaking to looked at me and asked: “Catholic? What is that?”
Where do you even begin with a question like that? The history? The Eucharist? The person of Jesus Christ?
I found myself at a loss for words."
- Michael O´Callaghan, Tourist in Denmark
A few weeks later, I attended another event in Denmark, a Mardi Gras celebration. More than 100 people were there. Three of them were dressed as Jesus, treating Him no differently than one might dress up as a unicorn. It seemed to me as if Danish people had never been presented to faith at all, either they had never heard of Jesus, or he was a joke to them.
When Benedikte, The founder of Mission Ansgarius, told me about this initiative, I reflected on my experiences with faith in Denmark. I believe there are few places in the world that are as in need of thoughtful, authentic evangelization as Scandinavia.
And I know that Mission Ansgarius can make a meaningful difference, for Catholics, and for all those in Scandinavia who are searching, questioning, or simply have never been given the chance to hear the Gospel
Keeping the Faith as a
Danish Catholic Convert
I grew up as a typical Danish person, just like the ones Father Daniel and Michael describe. I had no real understanding of Catholicism, Jesus, or faith in general.
When I was 19, I accidentally walked into a Catholic church in Spain. On the altar, there was something I didn’t recognize; it looked like a kind of makeup mirror. I had never seen anything like it. But when I looked at it, something happened that I still struggle to explain. It felt like my soul was being flipped upside down; I had no understanding of what I was looking at - I just received this divine understanding that it was holy.
In that moment, I looked around the church to see if anyone else had had the same life changing experience as I had. I saw three young Catholics I had met a few days earlier, and who by "accident" happened to be present in the same church. I could not contain my joy and confusion by having seen this "weird looking make up mirror" and exclaimed, shaking with fear that they might laugh:
“God is real. He is real!!!”
For me, saying those words was completely new. I had never been around people who spoke seriously about God. Where I come from, it’s usually seen as something old, distant - something to joke about. I was scared that they would laugh or think I was crazy.
They did in fact laugh, and with the biggest joy exclaim:
“Yes - of course God real. Everybody knows”
I looked at them with confusion - they surely had never been to Denmark. My brain was puzzled. These Americans had to be the smartest people on earth - to know with such certainty such incredible knowledge: that God is real. I asked them who had told them about God. They all had an answer: teachers, parents, friends, they went to church as kids and so on. They asked me how I knew.
I tried to explain to them that i had just looked at that thing on the alter, that my soul had been flipped, and that I then "just knew"
They understood better than I did, at the time, what had just happened. They explained what I had seen: not a make up mirror, but a monstrance. They told me about the Eucharist, the Trinity, how to pray, and what it means to live as a Christian.
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Benedikte Møller,
- Founder of Mission Ansgarius
When I returned home to Denmark everything had changed. Instead of going out on Friday nights, I started going to Adoration. To me, it felt like the only logical response. Since God is truly present, everything in my life should reflect that.
To my friends and family, it looked very different.
They thought I was losing my mind.
I was asked questions like:
“Catholic, what is that?”
“Why don’t you go out anymore?”
“Why Catholic and not just Christian?”
Some were curious. Others were critical.
I did lose quite some friendships during that time. Partly because I had changed, but also because I couldn’t explain why.
Looking back, that is my biggest regret. I wish I had had the words.
I wish I had had resources in Danish - something I could use to explain my faith clearly, in a way that made sense in our culture.
I wanted to share what I had experienced, the peace, the clarity, the joy, but I didn’t know how.
When I tried, I often repeated what I had heard from the Americans, but it didn’t translate well. It sounded foreign, almost out of place. Not rooted in how we speak or understand things in Scandinavia.
That is the reason for this mission.
To create something that helps people who already believe, to understand their faith more deeply, and to explain it clearly when they are asked:
“Catholicism -what is that?”
“What good is a word if it is not understood?”
-St. Augustine
The Influence of Language on Faith and Formation
Catholics in Scandinavia are a small minority.
In Denmark, less than 1% of the population belong to the Catholic Church. For many lay people, this means something deeper than statistics: a quiet distance from the faith.
This was something the initiator behind the project, Catholic convert Benedikte Møller, experienced when she entered the Church:
"As a Danish person entering the Church, not only did I become a minority within my old group of friends and family, I also became a minority within the Church. Most Catholics in Denmark are descendants of immigrants - mostly Vietnamese, Polish, or Middle Eastern. I experienced that they had a language and a very different foundation for faith than I did.
In our very secular region of the world, it also seemed to me like they were more accepted; non-religious people saw it as a cultural thing that they went to church on Sunday. It was easier to accept for Danes, whereas most of my peers, and especially my siblings, found it extremely weird, almost provocative, that I chose to spend my Sundays in church and my weekday afternoons in adoration. I would be asked questions such as:
- “You do know you don’t have to do that?”
- “You are wasting your time, we miss the old you.”
And by more open-minded, curious friends, I would be asked: “But why?”
I did not have the words to describe how deeply touched my heart was by the Eucharist - and I had no words for explaining the theology."
Most priests in Denmark, where I am from, come from Southern Europe, and while I am eternally grateful for the work they do here in Denmark and the way they serve our community, I continuously found myself struggling between faith, culture, and language. It took me years to realize how profoundly the lack of Catholic resources in one’s own language can affect spiritual strength.
It was only when I met a Catholic religious sister, born and raised Danish, that something clicked. She asked me how my faith was going. I said I found it difficult to keep up, I struggled to find prayers, books, and podcasts in Danish. Instead of telling me where to search or what to read, she simply sighed gently, nodded, and said:
“Yes… that is difficult to find.”
I remember thinking: If even a Sister finds it difficult, then I am not struggling alone.
I had not understood why it was so difficult for me to grow in my faith, to explain Jesus to my fellow Danes, or to find resources, but the reality was simple: there were very few.
I knew my weakened faith was not because I did not attend Mass. It was not because I did not want to learn. I had seen the abundance of American Catholic resources online, and it was not because I lacked encounters with Christ in the Eucharist.
It had to be something else.
With my engineering background, I became determined to find the root of the problem. After days of research, I found something that described exactly what I had experienced.
What I discovered was both simple and frustrating: faith is deeply connected to language.
Research shows that religion is not only communicated through language, it is actually shaped by it. As one study puts it, religion can be understood as something that exists through language systems themselves ("Language of Religion, Religions as Languages", 2022).
That means the words we use are not just labels, they influence how we understand and live the faith.
I also found research showing that people understand and connect more easily with religious messages when they are shared in their own language. One study noted that audiences "more easily understood" messages delivered in their native language
("The impact of local language on public understanding of religious messages", 2024).
That really struck me, because that was exactly my experience.
Other studies explained this as the importance of faith in one’s "mother tongue", where belief becomes more real and lived when it is expressed within your own language and culture ("Mother-Tongue Theology", 2020).
Without access to the Gospel in one’s own language, something subtle but serious can happen. Faith can begin to feel distant. Not false, but harder to grasp. Harder to explain. Harder to live.
Looking at it more broadly, this is not only true for faith. Research in education shows that people generally understand and retain things better in their first language ("Role of the Mother Tongue in Learning", 2018).
So it suddenly made sense.
It was not that I didn’t want to learn.
It was not that I lacked faith.
It was not that I wasn’t trying.
I simply didn’t have the language.
And without language, even something as real as faith can begin to feel just out of reach - this is where the real consequences begin. When Catholics do not have access to the faith in their own language, formation becomes weaker. You can attend Mass, receive the sacraments, and still feel like you are only partially understanding what is happening.
Evangelisation also becomes difficult. If you don’t fully have the words yourself, how do you share them with others?
And slowly, faith can begin to feel like something foreign, something imported, instead of something deeply personal and lived.
Ultimately, without strong resources in one’s own language, the ability to understand, live, and share the faith is not removed, but it is significantly weakened. I know this is a shared experience, not only among converts in Scandinavia, but the whole Catholic minority in our region.
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