Former vice president Chen Chien-jen (陳建仁) expressed hope on Saturday that President William Lai (賴清德) would be invited to the inauguration of the next pope, after attending the late Pope Francis’ funeral as Lai’s envoy.
Pope Francis’ funeral was held on Saturday morning in St Peter’s Square, where an estimated 250,000 people had gathered over the past three days to pay their respects to the late pontiff, who passed away on Monday last week at the age of 88.
About 163 delegations attended the ceremony, including 12 reigning monarchs, 42 heads of state, six deputy heads of state, six parliamentary speakers and representatives from nine UN organizations, the Vatican said.
Photo: CNA
After attending the two-hour funeral, Chen said he arrived slightly early, approached former US president Joe Biden and had a brief conversation with him.
While Biden was US vice president during former US president Barack Obama’s administration from 2009 to 2017, he was responsible for launching the “Cancer Moonshot Initiative” to fight cancer, Chen said.
Chen, who was then vice president of Taiwan’s top academic research institution, Academia Sinica, told Biden that Academia Sinica had also joined the Cancer Moonshot Initiative and that both sides were continuing their cooperation on the project.
In response, Biden told him: “Go, go, go, keep it going,” Chen said.
Chen said he also thanked Biden for his administration’s efforts in finalizing the “US-Taiwan Initiative on 21st-Century Trade,” with the first agreement under the initiative taking effect late last year.
In addition to his conversations with Biden and Japanese Minister of Foreign Affairs Takeshi Iwaya, Chen said he had the opportunity to engage in cordial exchanges with the heads of delegations from Paraguay and Guatemala — two of Taiwan’s diplomatic allies — as well as with several cardinals and clergy members before and during the funeral.
Aside from expressing hope that the late pope would continue to bless Taiwan’s diplomatic relations with the Vatican, Chen said he sincerely hoped that Lai could represent Taiwan at the upcoming papal inauguration once a new pope is selected.
The conclave to elect the next pope is expected to begin between Tuesday next week and May 11.
When Pope Francis was inaugurated in 2013, then-president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) attended the ceremony.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has said that Chen’s appointment as envoy was the result of discussions between Taipei and the Holy See, but did not elaborate on why Lai would not attend the funeral in person.
Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Francois Wu (吳志中) on Wednesday said that Chen was “the best choice under the current circumstances,” citing his Catholic faith and personal ties with the late pope as the main reasons.
Chen had met with Pope Francis on six occasions and was selected as an academician of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences in 2021, the ministry said.
Wu, who accompanied Chen on his trip to the Vatican, said that attending the late pope’s funeral provided Taiwan with a rare international occasion.
“This is a global meeting and our participation has demonstrated that Taiwan is part of the world,” Wu said.
The Holy See is the only UN member in Europe that has formal diplomatic relations with the Republic of China (ROC), Taiwan. Formal diplomatic ties were established in 1942, when the ROC government was still based in China.
However, the Vatican’s relations with Beijing have warmed since Pope Francis assumed the papacy in 2013.
In 2018, the Vatican and Beijing reached a historic agreement to collaborate on the appointment of Chinese bishops, a deal that was extended for a third time in late last year.
Tensions have since emerged, as Beijing has contravened the agreement by unilaterally appointing bishops without Vatican approval.
Additional reporting by Reuters
More than half of the bamboo vipers captured in Tainan in the past few years were found in the city’s Sinhua District (新化), while other districts had smaller catches or none at all. Every year, Tainan captures about 6,000 snakes which have made their way into people’s homes. Of the six major venomous snakes in Taiwan, the cobra, the many-banded krait, the brown-spotted pit viper and the bamboo viper are the most frequently captured. The high concentration of bamboo vipers captured in Sinhua District is puzzling. Tainan Agriculture Bureau Forestry and Nature Conservation Division head Chu Chien-ming (朱健明) earlier this week said that the
NAMING SPAT: The foreign ministry called on Denmark to propose an acceptable solution to the erroneous nationality used for Taiwanese on residence permits Taiwan has revoked some privileges for Danish diplomatic staff over a Danish permit that lists “Taiwan” as “China,” Eric Huang (黃鈞耀), head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Department of European Affairs, told a news conference in Taipei yesterday. Reporters asked Huang whether the Danish government had responded to the ministry’s request that it correct the nationality on Danish residence permits of Taiwanese, which has been listed as “China” since 2024. Taiwan’s representative office in Denmark continues to communicate with the Danish government, and the ministry has revoked some privileges previously granted to Danish representatives in Taiwan and would continue to review
The first bluefin tuna of the season, brought to shore in Pingtung County and weighing 190kg, was yesterday auctioned for NT$10,600 (US$333.5) per kilogram, setting a record high for the local market. The auction was held at the fish market in Donggang Fishing Harbor, where the Siaoliouciou Island-registered fishing vessel Fu Yu Ching No. 2 delivered the “Pingtung First Tuna” it had caught for bidding. Bidding was intense, and the tuna was ultimately jointly purchased by a local restaurant and a local company for NT$10,600 per kilogram — NT$300 ,more than last year — for a total of NT$2.014 million. The 67-year-old skipper
China has reserved offshore airspace over the Yellow Sea and East China Sea from March 27 to May 6, issuing alerts that are usually used to warn of military exercises, although no such exercises have been announced, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported on Sunday. Reserving such a large area for 40 days without explanation is an “unusual step,” as military exercises normally only last a few days, the paper said. The alerts, known as notice to air missions (NOTAMs), “are intended to inform pilots and aviation authorities of temporary airspace hazards or restrictions,” the article said. The airspace reserved in the alert
RSS