Vatican City, April 26 (CNA) Taiwan’s former Vice President Chen Chien-jen (陳建仁) expressed hope on Saturday that President Lai Ching-te (賴清德) would be invited to the new pope’s inauguration ceremony, after attending the late Pope Francis’ funeral as Lai’s envoy.
Pope Francis’ funeral took place on Saturday morning on the square in front of St Peter’s Basilica, where an estimated 250,000 people visited over the past three days to pay their respects to the late pope, who died on April 21 at the age of 88.
According to the Vatican, some 163 delegations attended the ceremony, among them 12 reigning monarchs, 42 heads of state, six deputy heads of state, six countries’ speakers, and representatives from nine United Nations organizations.
Chen told CNA after attending the two-hour-long funeral that he arrived at the funeral venue slightly early, approached former U.S. President Joe Biden, and had a brief conversation with him.
While Biden was vice president under President Barack Obama from 2009 to 2017, he was responsible for launching the “Cancer Moonshot Initiative” to fight cancer, according to Chen.
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.
During the brief talk, Chen said he also thanked Biden for his administration’s efforts in sealing the “U.S.-Taiwan Initiative on 21st-Century Trade,” with the first agreement under the initiative taking effect in late 2024.
Aside from Biden and a brief conversation with Japan’s top diplomat Takeshi Iwaya, Chen told CNA that he also had the opportunity to have cordial exchanges with the delegation heads from Paraguay and Guatemala, two of Taiwan’s diplomatic allies, as well as with several cardinals and clergies before and during the funeral.
Overall, Chen said he believed he had completed his mission as Lai’s special envoy to Pope Francis’ funeral service.
Aside from expressing hope that the late pope would continue to bless Taiwan’s diplomatic relations with the Vatican, Chen said he sincerely hoped President Lai could represent Taiwan at the upcoming papal inauguration once a new pope is selected.
Taiwan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) has said the appointment of Chen was the result of discussions between Taipei and the Holy See, but neither MOFA nor the Presidential Office elaborated on why Lai was not attending the event in person.
Deputy Foreign Minister François Wu (吳志中), instead, told reporters on Wednesday that Chen was “the best choice under the current circumstances,” citing the devout Catholic’s personal ties with the late pope as the main reason.
According to MOFA, Chen had previously met with Pope Francis on six occasions and was selected as an academician of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences in 2021.
Wu, who joined Chen during his Vatican trip, told CNA on Saturday that attending the late pope’s funeral provides 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.
He also said that Chen was seated next to Thailand’s representative, as delegations at the funeral were arranged in alphabetical order according to French, the official language of diplomacy.
The Holy See is the only diplomatic ally of the Republic of China (ROC), the official name of Taiwan, in Europe. Formal diplomatic ties were established in 1942 when the ROC government was still based in mainland China.
The Vatican’s relations with Beijing have warmed, however, since Francis assumed the papacy in 2013.
In 2018, Beijing and the Vatican struck a historic deal to work together on appointing Chinese bishops, which was extended for a third time in late 2024.
Tensions in the relationship have developed since then after Beijing contravened the agreement by unilaterally making the appointments.
