Bishop Emeritus Eero Huovinen reflects on his life and faith on his 80th birthday

We sit down In the children’s room of the Helsinki Cathedral. It’s fitting, because at the end of an hour’s rutting Eero Huovinen says: “The title of Vaar is the highest honor a man can receive in his life.”

Huovinen has four grandchildren. When he mentions them, he smiles gently.

At the beginning of the interview, however, the bishop emeritus of the Diocese of Helsinki and professor emeritus of the University of Helsinki was cautiously tense. He took out a piece of paper on which he had written things that he wanted to say in his anniversary interview. A little shyly, Huovinen announced that there have actually been two focal points and great love in his life, and he wants to talk about them.

“They are Stadi and God,” he said and looked into his eyes.

“They are very different from each other. But together they form a love couple that is very important to me.”

BLANKET was born in Helsinki to a family that lived on the edge of Kampintori, at the corner of Malminkatu and Fredrikinkatu.

“The streets, blocks and houses around it became a kind of center of my imaginary world. There are many memories associated with the blocks in the center of Helsinki.”

Huovinen wrote an autobiography four years ago I miss mom – work. In it, he told how losing his mother at only 9 years old has affected his life and continues to affect his life. My father’s closed way of grieving and my own eternal longing, which also accompanies aging, have colored life.

“Mother was also the stadium’s freidu.”

In stadium in Huovinen’s opinion, however, there has been one feature that he considers a “downfall”, suppleness.

“Even though I’m proud of being from Stadion, I don’t want to flaunt it.”

Huovinen is at home on the asphalt, but he doesn’t want a confrontation with the countryside either. Stadi is not against lande, on the contrary.

“In terms of the development of a person’s identity, it is important that he has a relationship with nature.”

”

“God is a thrilling and fascinating mystery to me.”

To his books Huovinen says he already got a good foundation in inner-city schools, a German school and Norssi.

“About the Norse mother tongue teacher Pirkko from Hakola even became a kind of superior: he still lives in my spinal cord when I try to write something. I got both fours and tens. He taught clear language.”

From this, Huovinen also got the model for his speeches, which he has been able to deliver throughout the decades. Or had to keep.

Defender of the soul – in his memoirs (2022) Huovinen goes through how, for example Mauno Koiviston right after the terrorist attacks of September 11th, we had to find the right words for the blessing or the morning devotion. Norssi’s mother tongue lessons helped to find: “Keep it simple. Don’t be stupid, but keep things clear and simple.”

Sometimes it is difficult to find words of comfort, even though they are exactly what is expected of him. Huovinen states that often, for example, a quiet presence is enough for those who are seriously ill or have lost a loved one.

“Suffering is a sacred place. You have to take your shoes off there and be quiet.”

OF GOD there is little talking during our meeting, even though Huovinen had planned otherwise. He sends a message after, which is a comment, a birthday reflection or an answer to the question of how the bishop emeritus sees God.

“Who is the God on whom I can leave my life? God is a thrilling and fascinating mystery to me. I fear and love him. He is always present in my life and soul. My conscience is often strict, but luckily God’s grace is stronger. I trust that God and Christ take care of sinners, so me too,” he writes.

In cooperation between different denominations, in ecumenism, Huovinen has mainly focused on the conversation between the Roman Catholic Church and his own Lutheran Church. He rejoices that ecumenism has progressed in the past decades.

“There are more commonalities than differences.”

RATIO However, there has been a break with the Russian Orthodox Church. Patriarch of Moscow Kirillthe leader of the Russian Orthodox Church, became familiar to Huovinen already in the 1990s when he served as the bishop of Smolensk and Kaliningrad. He was a hospitable host on trips to Russia and, on the other hand, a familiar guest even at Huovinen’s home when he visited Finland.

“We had respectful learning discussions and got closer in a way that was not possible at all before the Second World War,” says Huovinen.

In recent years, Kirill has been seen Vladimir Putin alongside supporting Russia’s power policy.

“Why did Kirill go on the bandwagon of war politics?” Huovinen ponders. “Perhaps there is such a Great Russian worldview behind it, according to which Ukraine is part of Russia.”

“However, even in the 1990s, these speeches did not include militarism. But why is Kirill now blessing Russia’s military campaign in Ukraine? It’s really incomprehensible.”

What would you tell your 20-year-old self?

“Go study abroad for a year or two.”

Read more: The mother was found in the letters