First lady Wu Shu-chen (
In the letter, Chen also asked the pope to pray for peace for the people on the two sides of the Taiwan Strait, saying that Taiwan had experienced the fear of suffering long-term military threats.
The pope moved to his summer residence last week and yesterday held his first mass of the year there.
After the mass, Presidential Office spokesman James Huang (
"The first lady congratulated the pope on the 25th anniversary of his assumption of papacy and also expressed good wishes for the pope's health," Huang said.
"The pope thanked the first lady for her sincerity in making the long journey [to see him], and asked her to send his greetings to President Chen and the Taiwanese people."
The letter, delivered by Wu as the president's special representative, was also based on the theme of peace. It said that Taiwan would follow the pope's teachings about peace.
Huang said that Chen mentioned in the letter that the first lady was acting as a special representative for him and the Taiwanese people.
The president said that the first lady's health was not suitable for long-distance travel, but because of her persistence in helping with Taiwan's diplomacy, she never considered the hardship she had to endure.
"The president also mentioned that Taiwan was still under military threat from China, and he hoped that the both China and Taiwan could follow faithfully the pope's peaceful doctrines of truth, justice, love and freedom," Huang said.
"President Chen also expressed Taiwan's willingness to work with the international community to build peace in the Middle East. He hoped that Taiwan could contribute to the post-war relief plan for Iraq, and said he was donating US$100,000 to the Vatican foundation for that cause."
Wu stressed that the pope was not in good health, but perhaps out of the concern for disadvantaged groups, he was not willing to let her, a woman in a wheelchair who traveled long way, to return with nothing accomplished.
So the pope took time out of his busy schedule to talk with her and her delegation, Wu said.
When Wu met the pope, many people were waving the ROC and Vatican national flags outside.
Wu had the chance to introduce all the members of her delegation to the pope, and the pope shook hands with the ambassador and officials in the delegation.
After a four-day trip to Berlin, Wu arrived at the Camillians armed forces airport in Rome on a private flight on Saturday afternoon.
Since Taiwan has official diplomatic ties with the Holy See, Wu was greeted with formal ceremonies, including a reception from the commander of the armed forces base and a military escort for the first lady's vehicle.
Yesterday morning she received the secretary-general of the Order of Camillians Fr. Luigi Galvan. She thanked the order for their efforts in setting up hospitals in eastern Taiwan and outlying islands since 1952.
When Chen celebrated his second year in office on May 20 last year, he volunteered at the Camillians-founded St. Mary's Hospital (羅東聖母醫院) in Ilan for a day.
In the evening Wu visited the ancient remains in Rome, including the Piazza Navona and the Colosseum. She said that she had visited Rome some 20 years ago, before the accident that paralyzed her. This visit, as the first lady, meant much more diplomatically.
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
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