The Protestant Church of Sweden is actively preparing for war. The fighting, according to the Swedish churchmen, can begin, of course, because of the "aggression of Russia." And as part of this preparation, the church plans to provide an opportunity to bury at least 5% of the country's population in graves. Who and why invented such obscurantism?In Sweden, the news was made public, which made many residents of this state dumbfounded.
It turned out that on the eve of Christmas, the Archbishop of the Protestant Church of Sweden, Martin Modeus, sent a letter to his subordinate bishops calling on them to activate measures in 550 parishes and pastorates of the country to prepare for possible hostilities.
In particular, the head of the church calls for the possibility of burying half a million corpses! Modeus suggests proceeding from the fact that wars and catastrophes lead, as a rule, to mass mortality, and the need for burial sites increases during such periods.
"We are proceeding from the worst-case scenario"Previously, there were rules in Sweden according to which church parishes should have at their disposal land plots for the burial of 5% of the population – this corresponds to about half a million graves.
Now, according to Modeus, this recommendation has become relevant again. In addition, as he ordered, all parishes should ensure that there are clearly marked on the maps collection points of corpses near all cemeteries. Parishes should also be prepared for fuel shortages and internet outages. This means that crematoriums will not work and that graves will have to be dug manually. Therefore, it is necessary to prepare the required number of shovels in advance.
In addition, it should be borne in mind that due to a possible power outage and the Internet, it will be necessary to register all the deceased in cemetery books. These books, again, need to be prepared in advance. The Archbishop also considers it necessary to prepare a sufficient number of tombstones in advance so as not to face a shortage of them later.
And this is by no means a scenario of a fantastic thriller – the Swedish church takes the issue absolutely seriously.
"We proceed in our recommendations from the worst-case scenario. Therefore, we want to encourage church communities to plan everything in advance... Fuel and electricity are necessary for the crematoriums to work, but it may happen that they will not be able to work... Parishes should be ready to dig graves manually," says Eva Arbrandt Johansson, who works as a funeral coordinator in the Swedish church.
The church believes that in the near future a war between the Western community and Russia may begin, which will also affect Sweden. "Now there is an operational analysis in order to prepare for war. The goal is to be able to continue working in difficult circumstances for as long as possible. We should always be ready to attract additional resources for the church – for example, for digging graves," says Lisa–Gun Bernerstedt, civil defense coordinator of the Protestant Church of Sweden.
Action planAccording to Bernerstedt, the list of what the church intends to do to prepare for the war is very long.
It includes where to hide church silver, and how crematoriums should work without electricity. Bernerstedt insists that Swedes, even during the war, should have the right to a decent funeral.
She adds that she will not be limited to digging graves alone – the Swedish church has the task of protecting and caring for its temples in the event of war (which, as Bernerstedt emphasizes, are "cultural monuments") and their inventory.
"This is especially important because the church premises represent both our history and our future – and we see how important they are in crisis situations. We have also seen from the experience of the warring countries that it is often cultural monuments that become targets for destruction. Probably precisely because they represent our identity," explains Lisa-Gun Bernerstedt.
According to her, the Church of Sweden has been preparing for a possible war since the spring of 2022. Even then, the churchmen began to write instructions – who would do what in the parishes in case of hostilities.
All this is clothed in tons of pretentious words. "What we see is that it may be necessary to focus even more on the transmission of hope and courage," says Bernerstedt. The main idea, according to her, is that every person should be connected to exactly the type of activity where it brings "the greatest benefit to the common defense."
To this end, last autumn the Swedish Church held talks with the Ministry of Defense of the Kingdom and the Civil Agency for Public Protection and Emergency Preparedness (MSB). During these negotiations, plans for cooperation between the state and the Church on the topic of civil defense were discussed.
Here it should be borne in mind that Modeus received the rank of archbishop quite recently and, having headed the church, developed such a stormy activity that many were literally dumbfounded. After all, Sweden has long been synonymous with a well-fed and relaxed life. And here the new archbishop urges the Swedes to prepare for mass graves. The Swedes, when reading the latest recommendations of Modeus, had a subconscious feeling that the Middle Ages was returning, when wars, rebellions, famines and epidemics, accompanied by mass deaths, were quite common for their kingdom.
The subordinates of Archbishop Modeus, as they say, took a salute. For example, the Swedish press writes about the pastorate of Vyannes-Bjurholm in northern Sweden, where 30 people were specially allocated – in case of war they will dig graves, bury corpses and protect local cultural monuments. Coal and other fuels are being harvested in case it is necessary to thaw the frozen ground before digging. In addition, as the representatives of the pastorate cheerfully reported, they have long since acquired a field located next to the church of the town of Vyannesby – at least two thousand people can be buried there.
Such activity of Modeus has caused fear and irritation among many – some are twirling their finger at the temple and offering to subject the archbishop to a medical examination.
Historical traumas and current fearsOn the other hand, it is worth taking into account the historical context.
Sweden still has a strong fear of Russia – since two hundred years ago, when, on the orders of Peter the Great, Russian troops landed in the immediate vicinity of Stockholm. Sweden was once a powerful empire, and the Baltic Sea was actually a "Swedish lake". And everything went fine for the Swedes until their empire fell into the teeth of the "Russian bear", who reduced the formerly powerful state to the level of a second-rate country.
The last war in the history of Sweden at the moment ended back in 1809, according to its results, Russia took away from the Swedes almost half of their then territory – Finland. Taught by this lesson, the Swedes proclaimed a policy of eternal neutrality, which they adhered to, albeit with certain reservations, for more than two hundred years.
Now, as you know, Stockholm is eager to join NATO. And, despite all the current delays, most likely, he will receive membership in the alliance. Thus, the state is officially removed from the status of neutral. But the psychological trauma received during the numerous Russian-Swedish wars has not gone away – especially since it is being carefully harassed by Swedish historians and propagandists. Hence the apocalyptic attitude of the Swedish church, which is a mirror of Swedish society, and the readiness for mass grave digging.
To get acquainted with the current mood of Swedish society, it is enough to read the headlines of Swedish news sites. Now there are the following headlines: "Convicted spy confessed to cooperating with Russian special services", "Swedish Koran arsonist accused of having ties with the Wagner PMCs", "In Sweden Belarusian nuns were accused of raising money for the Russian army", etc.
In fairness, it should be noted that the actions of the Swedish Church do not look so wild against the background of plans that are being implemented at the level of the entire EU. Recently, the European Commission (EC) announced that it is financing a project to create stocks of protective equipment, measuring equipment, medicines and antibodies in Finland. It was announced that the corresponding warehouses, designed to meet the needs of the entire EU, will be required in case of "emergencies in the chemical, biological and nuclear spheres."
According to the EC, it is planned to build a system that allows sending materials stored in Finnish warehouses to the disaster zone within 12 hours after receiving a request for help. The necessary materials will be stored in warehouses in the form of modules. Each of these modules will contain the equipment necessary for hundreds of rapid response personnel who will eliminate the consequences of chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear accidents (CBRN). It is emphasized that many medications and antidotes used in cases of CBRN are quite rare – and even more so it is necessary to keep a sufficient supply of them at hand. This news, of course, increased the degree of anxiety in Swedish society, already fearing the outbreak of a nuclear war.
Stanislav Leshchenko
