Antoine Henri Marie Pierrot, a Catholic priest from the Netherlands who devoted most of his life to Taiwan, on Friday died in Yunlin County at the age of 96.
“Please join us in praying for the repose of the soul of Father Antoine Henri Marie Pierrot S.A.M, who was called home to heaven this morning at 4am at St Joseph’s Hospital in Huwei [虎尾], Yunlin County,” the hospital wrote on Facebook.
Vice President Chen Chien-jen (陳建仁) expressed his condolences and urged the public to follow Pierrot’s lead and use love to make Taiwan a better place.
Photo copied by Liao Shu-ling, Taipei Times
Pierrot, who came to Taiwan in 1954 aged 31, established St Joseph’s Hospital in 1956 with Belgian priest Georges Massin to take care of poor people in remote rural areas.
To raise funds for the hospital, Pierrot went to preach in the US for 10 years before returning to Taiwan in 1970.
Since then, he devoted his entire life to the hospital and looked after people in need from Yunlin and elsewhere.
In addition to establishing a healthcare network to serve people in the central and coastal areas of western Taiwan, Pierrot also founded the St Joseph Social Welfare Foundation, a charity.
He was awarded medals by presidents, the government and charity groups, including the Alien Permanent Resident Lifelong Contribution Award from the Ministry of the Interior in 2011 and the Order of Brilliant Star with Violet Grand Cordon from then-president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) in 2015.
Pierrot’s life and work was connected to Yunlin for more than 60 years, and he often said he viewed Taiwan as his homeland and described himself as Taiwanese.
A keen photographer, Pierrot took many photographs of ordinary people and life in rural Taiwan.
An exhibition of his photographs taken between 1954 and 1984 was held in Douliu (斗六), the county seat, in 2016.
A magnitude 6.4 earthquake struck off the coast of Hualien County in eastern Taiwan at 7pm yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The epicenter of the temblor was at sea, about 69.9km south of Hualien County Hall, at a depth of 30.9km, it said. There were no immediate reports of damage resulting from the quake. The earthquake’s intensity, which gauges the actual effect of a temblor, was highest in Taitung County’s Changbin Township (長濱), where it measured 5 on Taiwan’s seven-tier intensity scale. The quake also measured an intensity of 4 in Hualien, Nantou, Chiayi, Yunlin, Changhua and Miaoli counties, as well as
Credit departments of farmers’ and fishers’ associations blocked a total of more than NT$180 million (US$6.01 million) from being lost to scams last year, National Police Agency (NPA) data showed. The Agricultural Finance Agency (AFA) said last week that staff of farmers’ and fishers’ associations’ credit departments are required to implement fraud prevention measures when they serve clients at the counter. They would ask clients about personal financial management activities whenever they suspect there might be a fraud situation, and would immediately report the incident to local authorities, which would send police officers to the site to help, it said. NPA data showed
ENERGY RESILIENCE: Although Alaska is open for investments, Taiwan is sourcing its gas from the Middle East, and the sea routes carry risks, Ho Cheng-hui said US government officials’ high-profile reception of a Taiwanese representative at the Alaska Sustainable Energy Conference indicated the emergence of an Indo-Pacific energy resilience alliance, an academic said. Presidential Office Secretary-General Pan Men-an (潘孟安) attended the conference in Alaska on Thursday last week at the invitation of the US government. Pan visited oil and gas facilities with senior US officials, including US Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum, US Secretary of Energy Chris Wright, Alaska Governor Mike Dunleavy and US Senator Daniel Sullivan. Pan attending the conference on behalf of President William Lai (賴清德) shows a significant elevation in diplomatic representation,
The Taipei MRT is to begin accepting mobile payment services in the fall, Taipei Rapid Transit Corp said on Saturday. When the company finishes the installation of new payment units at ticketing gates in October, MRT passengers can use credit cards, Apple Pay, Google Pay and Samsung Pay, the operator said. In addition, the MRT would also provide QR payment codes — which would be compatible with Line Pay, Jkopay, iPass Money, PXPay Plus, EasyWallet, iCash Pay, Taiwan Pay and Taishin Pay — to access the railway system. Currently, passengers can access the Taipei MRT by buying a single-journey token or using EasyCard,
RSS