Pope John Paul II began the first papal visit to the mainly Lutheran Nordic countries Thursday by appealing for greater unity between Catholics and Protestants despite "difficult questions" on religious differences.
"It is the vocation of all Christians to strive for greater unity," said the pope during an open-air Mass celebrated on a raised red, white and yellow altar against the deep-blue backdrop of Oslo Fjord."I welcome all non-Catholics who are present today. Pray fervently with us for the gift of unity so that we one day will be able to congregate around a common communion table," he said in Norwegian.
The pope's comments set a tone of compromise on the first day of a 10-day visit to five Nordic countries, one of the last regions of Lutheran fundamentalism.
Vatican sources have acknowledged problems facing the pope in the visit to Norway, Iceland, Finland, Denmark and Sweden, where Protestant hostility and sexual permissiveness have caused friction with Catholic teaching.
Norwegian Prime Minister Gro Harlem Brundtland was at Oslo International Airport to meet the Vatican head of state when he arrived.
John Paul called for efforts at rapprochement to continue "despite the many difficult questions which remain concerning faith and doctrine."
Friday the pontiff will fly to the world's most northerly Catholic diocese at Trondheim, and Saturday he was to make his first trip above the Arctic Circle to Tromso to lead evening prayers.