New Polish Nuncio for Southern Africa!

by Admin · April 16, 2024

Polish Archbishop Henryk Mieczysław Jagodziński (Wikipedia)

Pope Francis has appointed a new apostolic nuncio to Southern Africa. Polish Archbishop Henryk Mieczysław Jagodziński, until now nuncio to Ghana, will serve as the Holy See’s representative to the region, and as the Vatican’s ambassador to South Africa and other states in the region.

The 55-year-old succeeds Archbishop Peter Wells, who departed from Pretoria in March 2023 following his appointment as nuncio to Thailand and Cambodia and apostolic delegate to Laos.

Archbishop Jagodziński was born in Małogoszcz, Poland, on January 11, 1969, and was ordained to the priesthood on June 3, 1995, for the Polish diocese of Kielce, where he did parish work for two years before continuing his studies.

The graduate in Canon Law entered the diplomatic service of the Holy See on July 1, 2001, and subsequently served in the pontifical representations in Belarus and in Croatia, at the Section for Relations with the States of the Secretariate of State, and at the apostolic nunciatures in India and Bosnia & Herzegovina.

Archbishop Henryk Mieczyslaw Jagodzinski in a handshake with late Pope Benedict XVI

He was appointed nuncio in Ghana in 2020, and raised to the rank of archbishop, with the titular see of Limosano.

Apart from his native Polish, Archbishop Jagodziński speaks English, Italian, French, Spanish, Croatian and Russian.

The nuncio has written several scholarly articles that have appeared in Kieleckie Studia Teologiczne (Kielce Theological Studies). In 2014 he published a book of personal reflections titled Wiarakapłana (A Priest’s Faith).

It is not known when the new nuncio will take office in Pretoria.