Taiwan’s Vice President will visit the Vatican next month on a trip that could antagonise China at a time when the Holy See is looking to build bridges with Beijing.
Chen Chien-Jen, Taiwan’s first Catholic Vice President, will be the special envoy for the President, Tsai Ing-Wen, whom the Vatican invited for the 4 September ceremony to canonise Mother Teresa, Reuters news agency reported.
The visit by Chen, 64, comes at a sensitive time in relations between China and the Holy See: Pope Francis has been working behind the scenes to bring about a thaw in relations between the two states.
Earlier this month the head of the Church in Hong Kong, Cardinal John Tong, said Chinese officials are now willing to “reach understanding” with the Vatican over the deeply contentious issue of appointing local bishops without the state’s approval, a move that would signify a dramatic new phase in Sino-Vatican relations.
Just days ago, the Vatican's Secretary of State, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, told reporters that Pope Francis "would like to overcome the divisions and tensions of the past and write a new page in the history of the Church in China". During the interview with a reporter for Avvenire, the newspaper of the Italian bishops' conference, the cardinal said the divisions in the Chinese Church are reconcilable: "To argue that in China there are two different churches does not correspond either to historical reality nor to the life of faith of Chinese Catholics" he said, adding that "it is two communities both eager to live in full communion with the Successor of St Peter".
The Pope sent good wishes to President Xi Jinping for Chinese New Year in February, a move that was seen as the deliberate offering of an olive branch to the administration.
Taiwan’s President is head of the pro-independence DPP party, which Beijing distrusts. China claims that Taiwan is one of its provinces and has no right to diplomatic relations with anyone; the Vatican is one of Taiwan’s only 22 diplomatic allies, and the only one in Europe.
Taiwan is an important base for the formation of priests and religious serving in mainland China and a crucial diplomatic ally.
China's Foreign Ministry did not immediately respond to a request from reporters for comment on Chen's trip.
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