President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) and first lady Chow Mei-ching (周美青) will lead an official delegation to attend Pope Francis’ inauguration Mass in Rome on Tuesday, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday.
The five-member delegation will leave for Rome tomorrow evening to attend the Mass at 9:30am on Tuesday and fly back to Taiwan that evening. The three other members of the delegation are National Security Council Secretary-General Jason Yuan (袁健生), Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Vanessa Shih (史亞平) and Fu Jen Catholic University president Vincent Chiang (江漢聲).
Shih said the Holy See has invited the president to visit some churches during his short trip. Ma will also visit the nation’s embassy and meet with Taiwanese Catholic groups in Rome.
In light of Ma’s planned trip, Beijing yesterday renewed its demands for concessions from the Vatican in their long-running battle for supremacy over Chinese Catholics and called on Taiwan to “bear in mind the overall situation and deal prudently with sensitive issues.”
Shih dismissed Beijing’s call for the Vatican to sever diplomatic relations with Taiwan, and said the city-state remained a strongly supportive ally of Taiwan.
“The diplomatic ties between the Republic of China [ROC] and the Vatican remain strong, and we believe the Holy See cherishes our friendship deeply. The president’s trip to Rome is the best example of our strong ties with the Holy See,” she said.
The ROC and the Vatican established diplomatic ties in 1942.
The Vatican’s top envoy to Taiwan, Monsignor Paul Russell, said the Holy See “will be very happy” to welcome Ma and “will receive him with every honor.”
Russell said the Holy See is grateful to Ma for his congratulatory message on the occasion of the election of Pope Francis.
The last time a Taiwanese president visited the Vatican was in 2005, when then-president Chen Shui-bian attended the funeral of pope John Paul II.
An incensed Beijing refused to send a representative and filed a protest to Italy for issuing Chen a visa.
Jorge Mario Bergoglio of Argentina was elected as Pope Francis on Wednesday. Shih said the ministry first planned for the first couple to attend the new pope’s inauguration followed the resignation of pope Benedict XVI, and began preparations for the trip immediately after the new pope was elected.
The ministry did not announce Ma’s trip until yesterday. Its decision to invite only two media outlets — the Central News Agency and SET-TV — to cover the event also raised protests from other media outlets.
After confirming the first couple’s attendance on Thursday, the ministry informed the two news outlets later that night to prepare for the trip to Rome. The ministry will cover the expenses of the trip for the accompanying journalists.
Shih blamed the controversial selection of media outlets on the limited time to prepare for the trip and said the ministry and the Presidential Office tried to make a fair selection by inviting the two media outlets, which are on the rotational shift next week to cover Ma’s events in the Presidential Office, to cover the trip.
“As the two media outlets will provide news and footage for local press and TV stations, the ministry will pay for their trips,” she said.
According to the ministry’s plan, the delegation will fly to Rome at 11:20pm tomorrow night via chartered plane and will take the chartered flight back to Taiwan at 22:30pm on Tuesday.
Shih said the ministry has instructed the representative office in Rome to arrange for a courtesy visa for the first couple to meet international conventions.
Additional reporting by Shih Hsiu-chuan and AFP
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique