Because of Covid-19, many schools have switched over to distance learning. The campus at Fu Jen Catholic University appeared bleak and deserted on the day of Taiwan Panorama’s new book forum for Angels of Love, but at the Msgr. Fahy Building, home to the university’s main library, the sound of applause rang out from the ninth-floor auditorium.

The forum, though organized under difficult circumstances, was attended in person by nearly 100 students and faculty, and the livestream, broadcast by Taiwan Panorama, FJCU, and the Kuangchi Program Service, attracted nearly 500 online viewers. In addition, Msgr. Pavol Talapka, acting head of mission for the Holy See’s Apostolic Nunciature in Taiwan (the embassy of the Vatican), took part by video link. Audience members found the pearls of wisdom shared by speakers in their discussions and stories to be both refreshing and moving.

A fertile land for freedom of belief

Angels of Love: Catholicism in Taiwan is a collection of 20 selected articles on Catholicism in Taiwan published in Taiwan Panorama since the magazine’s founding as Sinorama in 1976. It highlights the contributions and dedica­tion to Taiwan of these Catholic clergy and members of religious orders who have come from afar to spread love and perform good deeds.

In his remarks, Tien Chung-kwang, deputy minister of foreign affairs, observed: “The development of Catholi­cism in Taiwan has been a process of radiating love and peace. Here I want to mention the respect for the values of democracy, freedom, and human rights that has existed in Taiwan over recent years, which has enabled these angels to practice here. This diverse and tolerant land provides fertile soil to nurture religion and faith.”

FJCU vice-president for academic affairs Yuan Jenq-tay added that 2022 marks the 80th anniversary of the establishment of formal diplomatic relations between the ROC and the Holy See, and Angels of Love has appeared at just the right time to testify to the importance of this milestone.
 

The least of these brothers

Taiwan Panorama editor-in-chief Ivan Chen, who presided over the forum, noted that the magazine carried its first report related to Catholicism back in the 1970s: a story on how the Congregation of the Immaculate Heart of Mary (CICM) had provided funding to found the Happy Children’s Center. In the 1980s there was a story on the Kuangchi Program Service, and in the 1990s the magazine documented events such as the naming of Paul Shan Kuo-hsi as only the fifth ethnic Chinese Catholic cardinal in the world. A special photo essay in 1993 titled “Men for All Seasons” recorded the faces of foreign priests in Taiwan. Reports and images such as these have left indelible impressions and memories among Taiwan’s people.

The Most Reverend Thomas Chung An-zu, archbishop of Taipei, shared a story about a Spanish Dominican priest named Father Faustino Sáez Muñoz (1908–1987) who went to Chung’s hometown of Lunbei in Yunlin County to proselytize when Chung was ten years old. Sixty years ago, Taiwan was poor and life was hard. Chung said: “He always took me along when he visited families. What I remember most clearly is how he would carefully listen to the many problems and worries that each family had, and respond to each, using the words of Jesus to encourage them. He also gave out small amounts of clothing and powdered milk that were part of the aid given to Taiwan by the US back then. By the time he left, every family was very happy. I think my religious calling dates back to that time. I also wanted to be a priest and spread joy, solace, tranquility, and hope to people.”

Academia Sinica academician and former ROC vice president Chen Chien-jen shared the following narrative: Before his marriage he was not yet a Catholic, but he had many contacts with priests and nuns working in the fields of healthcare and public health, such as the Belgian nuns Sister Maria Godelieva Claeys and Sister Helena Maria Bomans (1932–2013) of the CICM’s St. ­Joseph Hospital in Taipei’s Wanhua District. He said gently: “At that time National Taiwan University Hospital was the best local hospital, but it was not at NTUH that you could find the most infant incubators in Taiwan, but in Wanhua. Sister Helena’s arms were like a baby’s cradle, and they cared for all the premature babies in Taiwan at that time. It really was as the Bible says: doing something for the least of these brothers and sisters.”

There were also the Austrian Jesuit priest Father Luis Gutheinz, and the Spanish nun Sister Elvira Valentín Martín (1922–2012) of the Hijas de Jesús (Daughters of Jesus), who both cared for people with Hansen’s disease (leprosy) at Losheng Sanatorium. Chen Chien-jen described how, when anyone asked Sister Elvira why they looked after these people, she would simply say, “Because God is love!” When someone asked a female patient about Sister Elvira, she replied: “There has never been anyone else who has understood the scars and sores on my body as well as her. When she gives me a sponge bath, she never touches my sores.”

Speaking without notes, Chen recounted many such moving stories, to which the forum audience responded with frequent rounds of applause.

Holy love in Taiwan

Chen said that everyone assumes priests are meek and mild, but in fact this is not always the case. For example there was a Hungarian Jesuit priest named Father Stephen (Istvan) Jaschko (1911–2009) who brought a group of disabled children and their parents to the Legis­lative Yuan to protest, which prompted Taiwan’s first laws on disabled care.

Chen also mentioned an American Jesuit priest, Father Robert J. Ronald (1932–2009). After coming to Taiwan, Father Ronald caught polio. He returned to the US for treatment, and then came back to Taiwan, but unfortunately was involved in a traffic accident. Ronald said: “The accident and polio were gifts to me from God, because they allowed me to understand the suffering of the destitute.” Taiwan’s entire system of vocational training for disabled people started from Ronald’s initiatives.

“On seeing this book, I am really grateful to God. It is as Mother Teresa said: ‘I am able to care for these least of brethren because for me, each of them is Jesus in his most distressing disguise.’ These priests and nuns have treated every person in need of care as the suffering ­Jesus, which is truly remarkable,” said Chen.
 

Transmitting love

Chen Fang-chung, dean of the College of Liberal Arts at FJCU and an expert in the history of Catholicism, noted that ironically we can thank the Communist Party of China for these missionaries coming to Taiwan. This is because if the communists had not suppressed religion in China and driven the missionaries out, they would not have come to Taiwan in such large numbers in the 1950s.

Chen Fang-chung added that if you look into the history of Catholicism in Taiwan you may discover that the Irish Columban missionary Father Neil Magill founded the New Life Workers Center in Taoyuan to guide Taiwan’s first labor rights activist group, and that the Rerum Novarum Labor Center in Taipei, founded by the Spanish Jesuit priest Father José María Ellacuría Beascoechea (1928–2020), worked to raise workers’ consciousness. These facts go to show that it is a mistake to equate missionaries with imperialism.

Chen Chien-jen also cited the example of the priests at Camillian St. Mary’s Hospital in Luodong, Yilan County, who asked patients who had no money for medical bills to write out IOUs, which were periodically burned. The priests were exemplars of righteousness and compassion.

In 2020 Father Giuseppe Didone, who founded the St. Camillus Center for Intellectual Disability in Yilan’s Sanxing Township and the hospice ward at St. Mary’s Hospital, decided to raise money for his home country of Italy, where Covid-19 was raging. His appeal resonated among the many people who had received care at St. Mary’s, and there was a flood of donations until Father Didone said he had collected enough money, and people should stop donating. In less than a week he raised NT$150 million (more than US$5 million).

Part of the international community

As the forum neared its conclusion, Ivan Chen asked the speakers to share their thoughts on the interactions between the Catholic Church in Taiwan and the inter­national community.

Archbishop Chung noted that the term “Catholic Church” means “universal church,” which means that there is wide participation and it is global. He added that there are frequent interactions between the Cath­olic Archdiocese of Taipei and the rest of the world.

Chen Chien-jen also shared his experiences of visiting the Vatican and meeting the Pope three times during his term as ROC vice president. At these meetings he got the feeling that the Pope has a genuine concern for Taiwan. He noted: “When I met with the Pope, I showed him an issue of Taiwan Panorama with a cover about the stories of Catholic missionaries in Taiwan. After he saw it, although he normally only spends three minutes with each of his visitors, he talked with me for a long time. This shows that the Pope cares very much about the people who live in Taiwan.”

Chen Chien-jen, who was appointed a member of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences by the Pope, emphasized that the diplomatic ties between the ROC and the Holy See are very stable, and noted that the formal diplomatic relationship is now in its 80th year. Taiwan and the Vatican fully share the universal values of freedom, democracy, rule of law, humanitarianism, diversity, and protection of human rights.

As FJCU vice-president Yuan Jenq-tay noted: “Fu Jen is a Catholic university, and throughout the past 60 years it has shouldered the mission of helping the government promote relations with the Vatican.” The book Angels of Love: Catholicism in Taiwan, published by Taiwan Panorama, has dual significance: it carries forward the history of the past and is a step into the future.

For more pictures, please click《New Book Forum: Angels of Love: Catholicism in Taiwan》