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Henryk M. Jagodziński (Apostolic Nuncio)- Southern Africa, My Love – Part One 2024 – 2025

Southern Africa, My Love

Based on the preface by Cardinal Stephen Brislin

“The life of a diplomat…..is a demanding life of adaption to frequent transfers, different cultures and languages.” From this opening insight, Cardinal Stephen Brislin frames Archbishop Henryk Jagodziński’s, ministry as Apostolic Nuncio as a vocation marked by engagement.  Far from living at a distance, the Nuncio has embraced the peoples of Botswana, eSwatini, Lesotho, Namibia and South Africa with warmth, enthusiasm and a genuine desire to understand and serve.

The Cardinal highlights the unique dual role of a Nuncio: representing the Holy Father both as Head of State and as Head of the Church.  White this may appear contradictory; he explains that the unity of these roles lies in the Gospel mandate to “seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness.” The Nuncio’s diplomatic work is not political manoeuvring, but the promotion of human dignity, justice, peace, unity and love.  His ecclesial mission is the same: to proclaim the Kingdom of God and to bring the hope of Christ into the world.

In this light, the Nuncio becomes a true pontiff – a bridge builder – helping to foster reconciliation, mutual respect and harmony among peoples of different cultures, languages and histories.  His homilies, speeches and reflection, gathered in this volume are shaped carefully crafted, pastorally sensitive and rooted in the values of the Gospel.

Cardinal Brislin invites readers to approach the book with an awareness of the Nuncio’s deeper purpose.  Without this, one risks reading the tests superficially.  With it, the reader discovers a coherent vision: a commitment to the transformation of society through the values of God’s Kingdom, lived out in concrete encounters with real people.

The Cardinal emphasises that nothing in this book is abstract or detached.  The Nuncio’s words arise from lived relationship; from travelling across the region, from meeting communities, leaders, and ordinary citizens.  His affection for the people of Southern Africa, My love, is therefore more than a record of speeches.  It is a testimony of encounter, a diplomat’s heart opened by the people he serves, and a bishop’s desire to bring the hope of Christ to a region he has come to cherish.

The Nuncio’s Motto “IN FINES ORBIS”, on his coat of arms, means “to the ends of the earth.”  It is a classical Latin phrase drawn from Biblical language, especially Psalm 19 and Acts 1:8 expressing the Church’s mission to carry the Gospel to every corner of the world.  It conveys a missionary spirit: reaching all peoples, all nations and without limit.  It is used to express universal service and evangelisation.

Henryk Mieczysław Jagodziński is a Polish priest of the Catholic Church who works in the diplomatic service of the Holy See. Henryk Jagodziński was born in Małogoszcz, Poland, on 1 January 1969. He attended the Higher Theological Seminary in Kielce. He was ordained a priest of the Diocese of Kielce on 3 June 1995 by Bishop Kazimierz Ryczan.

He holds a degree in canon law. He did parish work in Busko-Zdrój for two years and then studied in Rome, earning a doctorate in canon law at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross. He also studied at the Vatican training institute for diplomats, the Pontifical Ecclesiastical Academy.  he entered the diplomatic service of the Holy See on the 1st of July 2001. His assignments included stints in the offices representing the Holy See in Belarus from 2001 to 2005.  Croatia from 2005 to 2008, the Section for Relations with States of the Secretariat of State in Vatican, and in India from 2015 to 2018, and Bosnia and Herzegovina from 2018 to 2020.