President Ma Ying-jeou met with a delegation led by Prefect of the Vatican's Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life Cardinal Joao Braz de Aviz late in the morning on April 12. The president expressed hope that this visit would further enhance cooperative ties between the ROC and the Vatican.
In remarks, the president expressed a welcome to Cardinal Braz de Aviz and former Rector of the Pontifical Gregorian University Father Franco Imoda , who are in Taiwan representing the Vatican at a seminar of the Regional Association of Major Religious Superiors of Men and Women in Taiwan and the 2013 Biennial Conference of the International Network for Quality Assurance Agencies in Higher Education. The president commented that this marks Cardinal Braz de Aviz's first trip to Taiwan and Father Imoda's first trip to Taiwan since 1997. He expressed confidence that this visit would surely enhance their understanding of Taiwan's political, economic, and social conditions, as well as reform efforts.
On March 19, said the president, he led a congratulatory delegation to the Vatican to attend the investiture of Pope Francis. He received a warm reception and high-level courtesy from the Vatican during his visit, which made the trip extremely smooth and pleasant. He thanked the Vatican and ROC staff for their work in this regard. He is therefore more than pleased to meet with Cardinal Braz de Aviz and Father Imoda and discuss cooperation between the ROC and the Vatican to work for world peace and provide international humanitarian assistance, said the president.
President Ma recalled that 30 years ago when he first worked at the Office of the President, he came into contact with the annual message delivered by the pope on World Peace Day. He said that the hopes and expectations expressed by popes over the years made a deep impression on him. Consequently, after taking office, he immediately sought to forge reconciliation between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait in order to reduce cross-strait tension and promote peace in East Asia. The president stated that the Korean Peninsula and the Taiwan Strait have long been viewed as two potential flash points in East Asia. After five years of efforts by the government here, however, the Taiwan Strait has become an area of peace and prosperity, while the clouds of war still shroud the Korean Peninsula, he said. This proves that Taiwan has become a peacemaker, the president commented.
In discussing the ROC's long history with the Catholic Church, President Ma explained that the Jesuit Matteo Ricci introduced the gospel to China late in the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644). In order to commemorate the enormous contributions of Matteo Ricci to the interaction of Eastern and Western culture, the ROC's National Central Library in April 2010 held a ceremony to inaugurate its Matteo Ricci & Pacific Studies Reading Room. Over 50,000 volumes related to Matteo Ricci have been collected there, the president said, adding that the research room is open to the scholars of the world for research. Meanwhile, the president commented, Fu Jen Catholic University at the same time held the largest academic seminar in the world devoted to the 400th anniversary of the passing of Matteo Ricci. Over 90 scholars and experts delivered papers at the event, commemorating this great missionary and promoter of cultural ties, the president noted.
President Ma furthermore stated that Catholic Dominicans introduced the gospel to Taiwan in 1859, and the Taiwan Catholic Church in 2009 held a large event to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the Catholic church's evangelization here. The Vatican sent Cardinal Jozef Tomko to Taiwan to preside over the celebrations, and, the president noted, he himself was invited to speak. President Ma remarked that over the 150 years that the Catholic Church has been active here, it has provided education for youth at all levels, and has constructed hospitals to care for the ill. At the same time, the Church has founded nursing homes to care for the disabled and disadvantaged, as well as the aged, he said. The Church, the president stated, has been an important link in Taiwan's social welfare system, which is why the ROC government in June 2011 instituted the Mackay Program, under which foreign clergy who are 65 or older and have served in Taiwan for over 20 years can enjoy the same social welfare privileges as Taiwan's senior citizens, including discounts on public transport. This gesture, he commented, expresses Taiwan's appreciation to these individuals for their contributions here.
President Ma stressed that the ROC, in response to the pope's efforts to promote world peace, frequently engages in humanitarian assistance and charitable health care work in the international community. For instance, he said, in January 2010 when a large earthquake struck Haiti, the ROC promptly dispatched a rescue and relief team, and the ROC also built 200 permanent homes for the disaster victims. President Ma also pointed out that after the Great East Japan Earthquake on March 11, 2011, the government and people of the ROC donated some US$200 million (about NT$6.6 billion) to Japan, more than any other country in the world.
President Ma told the guests that each year Taiwan provides scholarships supported by the government and actively promoted by the Taiwan Catholic Church, to assist clergy from mainland China to come to Taiwan for advanced studies. He said that the number of scholarship recipients is increasing each year, and that the initiative has been well-received by the Vatican. In the future, the president stated, Taiwan intends to continue acting as a bridge between the Catholic Church in mainland China and the worldwide Catholic Church. This, he said, will enable clergy from the mainland to better understand the state of development of the Vatican and the Catholic Church in Taiwan.
President Ma also expressed hope that the ROC can continue to serve in the international community as a peacemaker, a provider of humanitarian aid, a promoter of cultural ties, a creator of new technologies and business opportunities, and a standard-bearer of Chinese culture. This, he stated, will help to expand the ROC's participation in the international community and make the ROC a constructive member of the global community.
The visitors were accompanied to the Presidential Office by the Vatican's Charge d'Affairs a.i. Monsignor Paul Fitzpatrick Russell to the ROC, and Archbishop John Hung Shan-chuan (洪山川) of Taiwan (the president of the Chinese Regional Bishop's Conference), to meet President Ma. Also attending the meeting were Secretary-General to the President Timothy Chin-Tien Yang (楊進添), National Security Council Secretary-General Jason C. Yuan (袁健生), and Minister of Foreign Affairs David Y. L. Lin (林永樂).