Catholic Church in Finland
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The Catholic Church in Finland (Finnish: Katolinen kirkko Suomessa) is part of the worldwide Catholic Church, under the spiritual leadership of the Pope in Rome.
As of 2018, there were more than 15,000 registered Catholics in Finland out of a total population of 5.5 million. There were also an estimated 10,000 unregistered Catholics in the country. Of the more than 6000 Catholic families in the country, half were Finnish and the rest from the international community. Due to the small number of Catholics in Finland, the whole country forms a single diocese, the Catholic Diocese of Helsinki.
In a 2025 interview with pontifical foundation Aid to the Church in Need, bishop Raimo Goyarrola stated that "Unlike other churches in the country, we do not receive state support and are therefore very poor", going on to explain that the Church struggles to maintain its pastoral outreach and charitable programmes. However, he also explained that despite the difficulties, the Church in Finland continues to grow steadily. "In Finland, a Catholic will often find himself the only one in his school or place of work. Despite this, Catholics don’t hide and are not afraid to let the people around them know that they are Catholics, or to speak to them about Christ. They speak naturally about the Eucharist and about Jesus. They are missionaries and apostles everywhere they go and are an example to the rest of the world".
As of 2018, there were five native-born Finnish priests, three of whom work in Finland. There are more than 30 priests from different countries serving in Finland. Since the 2019 retirement of Teemu Sippo, the first native-born Finnish Catholic bishop since the Lutheran Reformation, the Diocese of Helsinki is now under the leadership of Spanish bishop Most Rev. Raimo Goyarrola Belda.
The Catholic Church in Finland is active in ecumenical matters and is a member of the Finnish Ecumenical Council, even though the worldwide Catholic Church is not a member of the World Council of Churches. Bishop Goyarrola highlighted these ecumenical relations in a 2025 interview, explaining that "each month we celebrate Mass in 20 Lutheran churches and five Orthodox churches".