A senior Vatican official arrived in Taipei yesterday to reaffirm ties with the government here, after the recent appointment of five new bishops by the Chinese Catholic Bishops College in defiance of the Holy See.
"My presence here is a sign that the relationship is very good," Paul Josef Cordes, archbishop and president of the Pontifical Council, said upon arriving for a six-day visit.
Stressing that the Vatican will never forsake its long-standing relations with Taiwan, Cordes said people here need not worry about possible changes in its ties with the Holy See.
"The people here should not be afraid that there would be a change of the relationship," Cordes said.
President Lee Teng-hui (
Taipei was alarmed last year when Chinese President Jiang Zemin (|蕞A民) told an Italian newspaper that Beijing was ready to improve relations with the Vatican if it broke its diplomatic ties with Taiwan and "recognized the People's Republic of China as the only legitimate government" of all China.
The archbishop was due to call on President Lee and visit the earthquake-stricken Taichung area.
More than 2,400 people were killed when a quake struck the island on Sept. 21.
"I'll see for myself the island's general post-quake situation and various rehabilitation and reconstruction projects in the hardest-hit disaster zones," Cordes said.
In contrast with the Vatican's rift with Beijing, Cordes said: "The Holy Father is trusting very much the archbishops and cardinal bishops of the Republic of China [on Taiwan]."
China's official church earlier this month ordained five bishops in defiance of the Vatican.
The Vatican was surprised at the ordinations as they were seen as adding obstacles to the path to the relaxation of tensions between the Holy See and Beijing.
Diplomatic ties between the Vatican and China were severed in 1957, after the Vatican excommunicated two bishops appointed by Mao Zedong (
The Vatican is one of Taiwan's two diplomatic allies in Europe. The other is the Balkan state of Macedonia.
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
CHINA REACTS: The patrol and reconnaissance plane ‘transited the Taiwan Strait in international airspace,’ the 7th Fleet said, while Taipei said it saw nothing unusual The US 7th Fleet yesterday said that a US Navy P-8A Poseidon flew through the Taiwan Strait, a day after US and Chinese defense heads held their first talks since November 2022 in an effort to reduce regional tensions. The patrol and reconnaissance plane “transited the Taiwan Strait in international airspace,” the 7th Fleet said in a news release. “By operating within the Taiwan Strait in accordance with international law, the United States upholds the navigational rights and freedoms of all nations.” In a separate statement, the Ministry of National Defense said that it monitored nearby waters and airspace as the aircraft
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