On Friday December 8, 2017, the newly build Chaldean church of Our Lady was Inaugurated by the Swedish Cardinal Anders Arborelius and the Chaldean patriarch Raphael Louis Sako in the town of Södertälje, Sweden. This is the first Chaldean church to be built in Sweden. According to members of the Chaldean congregation in Södertälje, the are about 4,000 Assyrian Chaldean Catholics in the town. The majority immigrated to Sweden from Iraq after the fall of Saddam in 2003. The new church building is financed by donations from Christian institutions and privates.
As to Cardinal Arborelius, he is the first Swedish Cardinal over the last 500 years and his congregation is increasing because of Assyrian Catholic’s immigration to Sweden.