Relationship dossier
Vatican City
Sweden
Relationship assessment
Limited but constructive engagement, including Pope Francis’s 2016 visit to Sweden
Vatican City toward Sweden
+15The Holy See sent Pope Francis to Sweden in 2016 for an ecumenical commemoration of the Reformation, a concrete instance of high-level engagement with Sweden.
Sweden toward Vatican City
+15Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Löfven attended the 2016 ecumenical commemoration in Sweden with Pope Francis, representing Swedish government participation in the event.
Overall relationship
+15The relationship includes a notable episode of high-level religious and diplomatic engagement in 2016. Information about the breadth and durability of cooperation beyond that episode is limited.
How to read these scores
Scores are rough judgments, not objective measurements or current verification. Directional scores describe government policy and conduct, not public opinion. The overall score is an independent estimate, never an average.
- −100
- Extreme sustained hostility
- −50
- Substantially adversarial
- 0
- Mixed or neutral, supported by knowledge
- +50
- Substantially cooperative
- +100
- Exceptionally close sustained partnership
“Not assessed” means there is no recorded score. Pair existence makes no claim about diplomatic recognition or established relations.
Relationship context
Overview
Vatican City’s external relations are conducted through the Holy See. A notable bilateral-facing episode was Pope Francis’s 2016 visit to Sweden for an ecumenical commemoration of the Reformation, attended by Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Löfven. This supports a modest assessment of engagement, but the scope and continuity of government-to-government cooperation are unclear.
Key developments
Pope Francis visited Sweden for an ecumenical commemoration of the Reformation, attended by Prime Minister Stefan Löfven.
Major uncertainties
- The scope of ongoing cooperation and bilateral arrangements between Sweden and the Holy See is unclear.
- The extent of Swedish government involvement in arrangements for the 2016 visit is unclear.