Mother Teresa extended love to Taiwan since 1980s

Taiwan News
Date: 2016-09-05
By: Sophia Yang, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

Mother Teresa has recently been declared a saint by Pope Francis. The Albanian nun founded the Missionaries of Charity in 1950 and the order has built shelters in more than 130 countries around the world under her leadership. In the early 1980s, Mother Teresa instructed two nuns to stay in Taiwan to assist in establishing and managing a charity institution in Tainan and, later on, to build another shelter in Xizhi of New Taipei City to take care of hundreds of underprivileged and lonely elderly.

In a dinner banquet following the canonization ceremony of Mother Teresa in the Vatican on Sunday, Taiwan’s Vice President Chen Chien-jen mentioned her visit to Taiwan that took place on January 16, 1985, at the invitation of the then-President Chiang Ching-kuo.

Mother Teresa allegedly said, “Taiwanese society is becoming materially rich but spiritually poor.” She was also said to have reminded Chiang that it is easier to deal with insufficiency in material resource than in spiritual life. Mother Teresa was quoted as saying that “Taiwanese might probably be free from hunger but the thirst for God and for love can’t be ignored.”     [FULL  STORY]