ISHR Leadership Visits Apostolic Nuncio in Senegal, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau and Mauritania

After visiting the Government and Parliament of Cape Verde, including a meeting with Cardinal Arlindo Gomes Furtado, Bishop of Santiago de Cabo Verde, and en route to Mauritania, the leadership of the International Society for Human Rights (ISHR) visited the Apostolic Nuncio for Sene­gal, Cabo Verde, Guinea-Bissau and Mauritania in Dakar, the capital of Sene­gal.

The Apostolic Nunciature in Senegal is the diplo­ma­tic mission of the Holy See in Senegal, Cabo Verde, Guinea-Bissau and Mauri­tania. The Apostolic Nun­cio to Senegal is an eccle­siastical office of the Catholic Church in Sene­gal with the rank of ambas­sador. The nuncio serves both as the Holy See’s am­bassador to these coun­tries and as the point of contact between the Catholic hierarchy in these countries and the Pope.

Nuncio Waldemar Stanislaw Sommertag (born 1968) is a Polish prelate of the Catholic Church who works in the diplomatic service of the Holy See. He was appointed as archbishop in 2018 and served as nuncio to Nicaragua from 2018 to 2022.

Archbishop Thomas Schirrmacher and Matthias Boehning discussed their experiences in Cabo Verde and their plans for Mauritania with the Nuncio. Another important topic was the situation in Nicaragua.

Archbishop Sommertag shows Matthias Boehning and Thomas Schirrmacher his Bishops cross © ISHR/Martin Warnecke

Sommertag’s tenure in Nicaragua was marked by efforts to defuse tensions between the government and the political opposition, although the government, like the Catholic Church leadership in general, increasingly saw him as an ally of its critics. For three years he quietly assisted in negotiations between the government and the families of its imprisoned critics, winning the release of some, but then began to use the term “political prisoners”. On November 18, 2021, the Nicaraguan government decreed the abolition of the title “Dean of the Diplomatic Corps”, traditionally given to the representative of the Holy See in Catholic countries. On March 6, 2022, he left Nicaragua after the government withdrew its recognition of his diplomatic status and ordered him to leave the country. The move came amid growing conflict between the Church and the dictatorship of President Daniel Ortega. On September 6, 2022, Pope Francis appointed him Apostolic Nuncio to Senegal, Cabo Verde, Guinea-Bissau and Mauritania. In a statement, the Vatican praised the work Sommertag had done in Nicaragua mediating the freeing of many of these political leaders.

Sommertag “worked tirelessly for the good of the church and the Nicaraguan people, espe­cially for the most vul­nerable, always seeking to favor good re­lations be­tween the Apos­tolic See and the Autho­rities of Ni­caragua. His participation as a witness and accom­panier of the National Dia­logue Table between the Government and the po­litical oppo­sition, in view of national reconciliation and the re­lease of political prisoners, deserves par­ticular men­tion.”

Another topic was the experience of interreligious dialogue in Senegal, as in mid-2024 the Catholic Church helped launch the Interreligious Council for Peace of Senegal. Bringing together representatives of Islam, the Catholic Church, Protestant churches and traditional religions, the Council’s mission is to anticipate and defuse conflicts and to promote peace, social cohesion, reconciliation and development in Senegal and in West Africa as a whole. As a result, on February 1, 2025, Sommertag and 20 Catholic prelates participated for the first time as guests of honor in major Muslim activities in Senegal.