Former vice president Chen Chien-jen (陳建仁) yesterday ended a nine-day visit to the Vatican, during which he held three brief meetings with Pope Francis, the embassy to the Vatican said.
The embassy wrote on Facebook that Chen and the pope meeting multiple times symbolized close relations between Taiwan and the Holy See.
The first meeting was on Sept. 4, before a beatification ceremony for the late pope John Paul I, the embassy said.
Photo provided by the Taiwanese Embassy to the Holy See
On that occasion, Chen relayed President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) greetings to Pope Francis and asked him to pray for the people of Taiwan, Chen said earlier.
Francis smiled in response and urged him to pray for world peace, Chen said.
The other meetings were on Saturday, when Francis honored Chen as part of a group of members of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, the embassy said.
The pope later that day hosted another meeting with the academy members and their spouses, it added.
Later that day, Chen met with Vatican representatives at a Mid-Autumn Festival event hosted by the embassy.
During the celebrations, a cake decorated with the number “80” was cut to mark the 80th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Taipei and the Vatican.
Chen’s visit was mainly to attend the beatification ceremony as Tsai’s special envoy.
While in the Vatican, Chen and his wife, Lo Fong-ping (羅鳳蘋), also attended Mass, and visited the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, Caritas Internationalis and the Sovereign Military Order of Malta, to engage with the Catholic Church and affiliated organizations on issues surrounding Taiwan’s participation in international humanitarian efforts.
Established in 1936 by pope Pius XI, the Pontifical Academy of Sciences aims to promote the progress of the mathematical, physical and natural sciences, and the study of related epistemological problems.
Chen was the second Taiwanese to be named a member of the academy, after Nobel Prize winner Lee Yuan-tseh (李遠哲), and the first to be appointed to its council.
A Catholic, Chen previously visited the Vatican for various ceremonies in 2016, and in 2018 and 2019 when he was vice president.
The Vatican is one of 14 states that maintain full diplomatic ties with Taiwan, and its only European ally.
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