French priest granted citizenship far sooner than usual 50 year mark other missionaries have received
Taiwan News
Date: 2017/08/03
By: Keoni Everington, Taiwan News, Staff Writer
TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Breaking from recent precedent, a French Catholic priest
Priest Yves Nalet with flock in Jianshih Township. (By Central News Agency)
has been granted Taiwanese citizenship despite having lived in Taiwan for less than half the time other recent recipients of naturalization have resided in the country.
On Wednesday, French Catholic priest Yves Nalet (南耀寧), officially received his Taiwanese citizenship after living in the country for a mere 21 years, far shorter than American Jesuit Father Daniel Ross, 85 and Sister Mary Paul Watts (華淑芳) 85, who lived in Taiwan for 57 and 59 years, respectively before attaining citizenship. Though he attained citizenship in a shorter period of time than many recent predecessors, he too is elderly at the age of 71.
Having first arrived in Taiwan in 1996 to work for a biweekly newsletter called China News Analysis, before beginning research on China and cross-strait relations at Taipei’s Fu Jen Catholic University. It was during his studies at Fu Jen that he began weekly cycling trips from Taipei to serve local residents in Jianshih Township in Hsinchu County, which took him 3.5 hours to cover a distance of 70 kilometers.
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