The Idea of an Essay, Volume 3

2016 Composition Contest Winnners 7 Letters to Father Jacob and the Catholic Church of Finland Brandon Best Brandon Best is a sophomore English major from Cross Plains, WI. He enjoys living through each of the four seasons every year and occasionally reading Wendell Berry. Although the Catholic Church is the most prominent church in Europe, Catholics remain a miniscule religious minority in Finland. Historically, Catholics have made up between .1% and .2% of the general population (Cheney). The struggle and eventual decline of Catholicism in Finland, while in part because of growing secularism, is largely a result of Finland’s protestant heritage and unique church-state relationship. In the film Letters to Father Jacob, Father Jacob, an elderly priest struggling to find people to serve, represents the Catholic Church. He eventually invites a former convict, Leila, into his home to foster her emotional healing with hopes she will eventually reconcile with her sister. Through Jacob’s character, the movie shows the Catholic Church’s warm relationship to the people, culture, and state of Finland. Letters to Father Jacob accurately portrays the Catholic Church of Finland’s positive but distant relationship to the people of Finland and the church’s decline during the 20th century, yet fails to depict the weak relationship between the Catholic Church and the state. Finnish society’s historical aversion to Catholicism has prevented the Catholic Church from developing a wide patronage. In 1959, The Tablet, a Catholic newspaper, described the church’s problem with Finnish culture: “It is with pride that the Finns name themselves ‘The most Lutheran nation in the world,’ and the peculiar nature of their Lutheranism suggests that their undivided allegiance to it for four centuries springs from deeper reasons than historical accident” (Green 5). The majority of Finns are prejudiced against the Catholic Church and, for the past few centuries, have seen it as