Vice President Chen Chien-jen (陳建仁) is scheduled to visit the Vatican next month to attend the canonization of six beatified individuals, or “blesseds,” a source said.
The Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister newspaper) reported on the planned visit on Friday, one day before the Vatican and China signed a deal on the appointment of bishops, an issue that for decades has caused tensions between the Holy See and Beijing.
The Vatican is the only European state to recognize the Republic of China and is one of the nation’s remaining diplomatic allies.
Photo: EPA-EFE
While some media outlets have speculated that Saturday’s deal would lead to the Vatican’s breaking ties with Taiwan, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs the same day said the Vatican had assured Taipei that the agreement “is not of a political or diplomatic nature, and will not affect the diplomatic relationship that has been in place for 76 years between Taiwan and the Holy See.”
Pope Francis on May 19 announced that the canonization to sainthood of the six, including pope Paul VI and archbishop Oscar Romero of El Salvador, would take place on Oct. 14.
A high-ranking government official, who declined to be named, on Friday said that as the government attaches great importance to the friendship between Taiwan and the Vatican, as well as numerous cooperative projects that help promote bilateral exchanges, President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) decided to designate Chen, a Catholic, to be the government’s special envoy to the ceremony.
Chen led a Taiwanese delegation to the Vatican in September 2016 for the canonization of Mother Teresa.
He was made a knight of the Vatican’s Order of the Holy Sepulcher in 2010 and a knight of the Order of St Gregory the Great in 2013 in recognition of his efforts in the fight against SARS and his academic achievements.
In related developments, an unnamed government official said the Apostolic Nunciature on Aiguo E Road in Taipei, the Vatican embassy, is to reopen soon following two years of renovations.
The nunciature moved from Aiguo E Road to offices in a building on Heping E Road two years ago, amid rumors that China was seeking to establish diplomatic relations with the papal state.
Many people at the time saw the move as an omen that relations between Taiwan and the Vatican were unstable, the official said.
However, the government has been offering the embassy assistance and it expects the nunciature to reopen at its former home soon.
The official added that Taiwan and the Holy See have held activities in recent years that demonstrate their close relationship, citing the first overseas exhibition of historical artifacts from the Vatican, which was held at the National Palace Museum in 2016.
The Ministry of Justice last year signed a pact with the Holy See to cooperate on combating money laundering — the Vatican’s first such agreement with an Asia-Pacific nation, the official said, adding that Cardinal Peter Turkson attended the XXIV World Congress of the Apostleship of the Sea in Kaohsiung last year, which was focused on problems encountered by those who live and work by the sea.
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