Suggestive Swedish church forced into name change

Northern Swedish church leaders in the municipality of Storuman have come under fire from local parishioners after ordering a name change for the Katakyrkan Church which, after thirty years of operation, is to be re-branded due to sexual connotations associated with the name.

“It’s not suitable for it to be called Katakyrkan, it’s too offensive,” said Olov Warnick, church council leader in a report in The Local. “It can be completely misunderstood, especially by young people,” he stated.

In Swedish, the word ‘kat’ commonly means ‘horny’ although the original intention was to reflect the style of architecture in which the church was constructed. Sami people, natives of the Lapland region, use the term ‘kat’ to refer to a conventional hut or residence inhabited by the Sami.

Political correctness has resulted in the former Horny Church hoping to officially change its name to Church Hut, much to the dissatisfaction of local attendees. “Let the church keep its beautiful name which is appropriate for the area in which it was built,” said one local campaigner, Esther Gustavsson. Gustavsson is one of around 60 local residents who have put their name to a petition objecting to the name change. “To change an acceptable name of a public building shouldn’t be decided by a few people alone,” she added. “Other points of view should be taken into consideration before any decision is final.”

Local authorities will shortly decide whether to sanction the re-christening.