Focus Taiwan
Date: 04/25/2020
By: Chang Jung-hsiang and Matthew Mazzetta

Taipei, April 25 (CNA) President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) attended a memorial in Tainan Saturday for Catholic priest Brendan O'Connell (甘惠忠), who died April 14 in New York at the age of 84 after spending more than 50 years developing special education services in Taiwan.

At a ceremony hosted by O'Connell's Bethlehem Foundation that was attended by Interior Minister Hsu Kuo-yung (徐國勇) and Tainan Mayor Huang Wei-che (黃偉哲), Tsai praised O'Connell as an "authentic Taiwanese" and issued a presidential order of commendation in his honor.

Tsai noted that O'Connell arrived in Taiwan at a young age and set about learning not only Mandarin, but Taiwanese, the Hakka dialect and the aboriginal Atayal language.

After seeing that many parents were having trouble caring for developmentally challenged children, he devoted himself to special education, founding the Leren Center in Kaohsiung and the St. Teresa Opportunity Center in Tainan, she said.    [FULL  STORY]