Vice President Wu Den-yih and Mrs. Wu arrived at Rome's Leonardo da Vinci International Airport at 7:15 p.m. on April 26 Italy time to visit the Vatican. ROC Ambassador to the Vatican Larry Yu-yuan Wang (王豫元) and Mrs. Wang, along with ROC Representative to Italy Stanley Kao (高碩泰) and Mrs. Kao, and Vatican protocol official Luigi Ginami, boarded the aircraft carrying Vice President Wu to welcome him and his delegation. The vice president was escorted by the protocol official to a VIP room at the airport to relax for a moment before heading to the hotel where he would stay during his visit.
On April 27, Vice President Wu and Mrs. Wu attended the canonization ceremonies for late Popes John XXIII and John Paul II at St. Peter's Square at 10:00 a.m. Heads of state and delegations of government leaders from 34 countries, along with 150 cardinals and Catholic pilgrims from throughout the world, gathered in the square to honor the late popes. The vice president shook hands and exchanged greetings with many of the heads of state attending the ceremonies, including Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez, Paraguayan President Horacio Cartes, El Salvador President-elect Salvador Sanchez Ceren, Guatemalan Vice President Roxana Baldetti, and Belizean Deputy Prime Minister Gaspar Vega.
In the evening, Vice President Wu and Mrs. Wu were accompanied by ROC Ambassador to the Vatican Larry Wang and Mrs. Wang to a dinner banquet with members of the clergy from the ROC stationed in the Vatican, representatives of the overseas compatriot community in Italy, and members of the Catholic Church from Taiwan who had travelled to the Vatican to attend the celebrations.
Upon his arrival, the vice president was warmly welcomed to the banquet hall by members of the ROC embassy staff and their families. He shook hands and took photos with everyone, and thanked them for their hard work on behalf of the nation. Vice President Wu also recognized the assistance provided by the staffs of the ROC embassy and the ROC's representative office in Italy for helping to make this trip a smooth and successful one.
In remarks, the vice president stated that President Ma has worked actively since taking office in 2008 to promote the stable development of relations between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait under the "1992 Consensus," whereby each side acknowledges the existence of "one China" but maintains its own interpretation of what that means. This, he said, has transformed confrontation and conflict into peaceful ties and close interaction. In recent years, Taiwan has achieved outstanding progress on many fronts, he stated, adding that Taiwan has consistently scored well in international rankings, which proves that Taiwan continues to be quite competitive in global markets.
Vice President Wu further stated that since 2008 the number of visitors to Taiwan from overseas has increased by one million each year. The number hit 8.02 million last year, and is poised to reach nine million this year. The vice president added that the government hopes the number of visits to Taiwan will break through the 10 million mark in 2016. He pointed out that the number of overseas visitors to Japan exceeded 10 million for the first time only just last year, which shows that this is a difficult number to achieve, but Taiwan has beautiful scenery and delicious food, and more importantly, its good-natured and honest people are Taiwan's most beautiful "scenery" of all. He expressed confidence that these factors will continue to attract international tourists to visit Taiwan. In addition, he said, the number of jurisdictions that provide visa-free courtesies or landing visas to ROC nationals has increased from 54 to 135, including the United States, Canada, and the European Union, which indicates that the ROC is a nation worthy of respect and that the people of Taiwan have won the trust of other nations.
Lastly, Vice President Wu again recognized the service and contributions that the Catholic Church has made to Taiwanese society. He also mentioned that the Catholic Church in Taiwan has over 300,000 devotees, and their kindness and love of peace are the best manifestation of the virtues of the Taiwanese people. This, the vice president noted, shows the positive effects that religion has had on the people of Taiwan.