Bishop Tomasz Grysa, the new Vatican Apostolic Nuncio to Seychelles, presented his credentials to President Wavel Ramkalawan yesterday Tuesday at the State House.
He replaces Monsignor Paolo Rocco Gualtieri who was accredited to Seychelles on March 8, 2016.
Upon leaving State House, Bishop Grysa described his meeting with the Seychellois Head of State as “a very important moment for me, because that is how I started my mission of deployment here in this country”.
He shared that it was also an opportunity to address topics such as climate change and social issues in the country such as drugs and violence.
“I assured the president that the Catholic Church is there to integrate in this area and share its experience and expertise,” he said.
He added that when it comes to social issues, the church cannot try to find a solution by itself and that it must be a joint work with the police.
“It is something that is central to the mission of the church because the future of the nation is at stake,” he concluded.
Bishop Grysa also visited Vice-President Ahmed Afif.
An apostolic nuncio is the Vatican’s ambassador to a state, a function which combines diplomacy and ecclesial unity and which allows the nuncio to represent the Pope, as head of the Catholic Church, from a from a diplomatic point of view.
It should be noted that the Seychelles and the Vatican established diplomatic relations on July 27, 1984.
Monsignor Tomasz Grysa was born in Poznan, Poland, on October 16, 1970. After his priestly ordination on May 25, 1995, on behalf of the Archdiocese of Poznan, he obtained a license in Canon Law.
In the service of the diplomacy of the Holy See since July 1, 2001, he served successively within various pontifical representations, in the Russian Federation, in India, in Belgium, in Mexico, in Brazil, with the permanent missions of the United Nations (New York), in Israel and within the Apostolic Delegation in Jerusalem and Palestine.
Monsignor Grysa is a polyglot. Besides Polish, he speaks French, English, Italian, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish.
On September 27, 2022, Pope Francis appointed him Apostolic Nuncio to Madagascar and Apostolic Delegate to the Comoros Islands and Reunion. In Madagascar, he succeeded Bishop Paolo Rocco Gualtieri, current Apostolic Nuncio to Peru.
Source: Seychelles Nation
