Vatican official in charge of cross-religious issues visits Taiwan

Taipei, May 6 (CNA) A senior official from the Holy See is visiting Taiwan to attend a seminar on religious studies and meet with representatives from various religious groups, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) said.

Father Paulin Batairwa Kubuya, the Vatican's under-secretary of the Dicastery for Interreligious Dialogue, is visiting Taiwan from May 1-11, MOFA said in a press statement.

He is in Taiwan primarily to attend a three-day international conference titled "Who is God? What is the Dao?" which will be held from Wednesday to Friday at the National Central Library in Taipei.

He will also meet with religious leaders from the Fo Guang Shan Buddhist organization and the Taoist group Foundation of I-Kuan Tao to promote dialogue between the Catholic Church and Taiwan's religious communities, MOFA added.

Before assuming his role at the Dicastery for Interreligious Dialogue in late 2019, Father Paulin served as an associate lecturer in the Department of Religious Studies at Fu Jen Catholic University in New Taipei and as executive secretary of the Catholic Religious Committee of the Taiwan Catholic Church.

The Holy See is Taiwan's only diplomatic ally in Europe. Formal diplomatic ties were established in 1942, when the Republic of China government was still based in mainland China.