“The church was complicit in the abuse”

The Church of Sweden acknowledges its part in the previous assimilation policy against the Tornedalings.

“It is painful that the church has been complicit in violating human dignity,” says Archbishop Martin Modéus.

A state truth and reconciliation commission has presented its investigation to the government on Wednesday, and is calling on the Church of Sweden to acknowledge its complicity in the so-called pre-Swedishization policy that was carried out during the 19th and 20th centuries.

Archbishop Martin Modéus says in a press release that the Church of Sweden has a responsibility to provide redress to those affected and to contribute to ensuring that the rights of the minority are respected.

“It is painful that the church was involved in violating human dignity and that it contributed to children feeling ashamed of their minority identity, their language and their culture. Many have been hurt and some have carried the trauma for a lifetime. Even their children and grandchildren have been affected,” says Modéus.

The Church of Sweden writes in the press release that its participation in the assimilation policy concerns, among other things, how the church has acted in the minority area during the period 1870–1930, as well as how the church participated in a kind of boarding school where children were sent to be raised in a nationalist spirit.