(LifeSiteNews) — Norwegian bishop Erik Varden has said “secularization” is over and that young people are looking for truth and meaning.

In an interview with the German Catholic outlet Communio, the president of the Nordic Bishops’ Conference said that “a tectonic shift is underway.”

“ We can say that secularization has now come to an end here,” he stated. “Quite simply because there is actually nothing left to secularize. And also because secularization is not, in principle, an endless process.”

“What I can confirm in what I read and in the people I meet is that there is a new longing and a new search for meaning, for criteria for community, for truth.” “And people want well-thought-out and realistic answers that are also attested to by people who live them out,” he added.

“Not only in Norway, but also in other countries characterized by prolonged secularization processes, I have noticed an increase in religious interest among young people,” the bishop stated. He also noted “their faithful participation in well-prepared and carefully designed church services.”

“Of course, I am not talking about a majority phenomenon, but the trend is clear and growing steadily: young people are longing for substance.” They have little patience for “empty, sentimental talk,” Varden argued.

“You can grow up in great prosperity, without material problems, perhaps even without too many human problems. Have everything you could wish for and still say to yourself, ‘That’s not enough,’” the bishop said.

“I find that impressive. It’s new to me. That 16- and 17-year-olds show up at our bookstore near the cathedral or at my office and ask, ‘What’s this all about?’”

He said young people ask him questions like: “Why do I exist and what for? Does my life have meaning? Do I have significance in the world that transcends my own feelings? Is there such a thing as ultimate meaning? Does love have meaning? Does my longing for love have meaning? What do you actually believe in?”

“And I find that these young people often behave in a very empirical way, so they’re not necessarily motivated by a powerful inner awakening, but they look at their parents, uncles, and aunts, who have everything and live comfortably and yet aren’t really happy.”

Varden grew up in a non-practicing Lutheran family in a Protestant, yet highly secularized, Norway. He entered the Catholic Church in 1993 and became a Trappist Monk in 2002. He was ordained a priest in 2011 and appointed as prelate of the Territorial Prelature of Trondheim by Pope Francis in 2019, subsequently being consecrated a bishop in 2020. He is the first Norwegian-born bishop of Trondheim since the Protestant reformation in the 16th century.