Cardinal Turkson visits Taiwan for Tzu Chi charity anniversary amid Vatican tensions

Cardinal Peter Turkson’s appearance at Tzu Chi’s 60th anniversary put the Vatican’s balancing act on public display, even inside a Buddhist celebration built around service, grief relief and interfaith reach.

Turkson, chancellor of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences, attended anniversary events confirmed by Tzu Chi and Taiwan’s foreign ministry, including a Sunday morning gathering in Hualien, where the charity is headquartered. Reuters-reported image captions placed the main Buddha-bathing ceremony in Taipei on May 10, 2026, and said more than 20,000 people were expected to gather at Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall for the evening celebration. Taiwan President Lai Ching-te and Raymond Greene, the de facto U.S. ambassador, were among those at the main event, underscoring how a religious anniversary also became a stage for diplomatic visibility.

The Vatican’s presence carried unusual weight because the Holy See remains one of only 12 countries that maintain formal ties with Taiwan, and the only one in Europe, while also seeking better relations with Beijing. That tension made Turkson’s visit more than ceremonial. It signaled that the Vatican still sees value in direct contact with Taiwan’s civic and religious institutions, even as any public appearance there can draw scrutiny in China. The Vatican did not respond to a request for comment, and Reuters noted that another Vatican official visited Taiwan last year for a conference and interfaith meetings.

Tzu Chi framed the anniversary around a different kind of diplomacy: humanitarian credibility. Founded in Hualien on May 14, 1966, by Dharma Master Cheng Yen, then 29, the Buddhist charity began with five female disciples and 30 housewives at Pu Ming Temple. It says its first large-scale charity sale, held on November 6, 1983, helped finance Hualien Tzu Chi Hospital. Since then, the group says it has provided aid in 136 countries and regions and now works across charity, medicine, education, culture, disaster relief, bone marrow donation, environmental protection and community volunteerism.

Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim attended the Hualien celebration and praised Tzu Chi’s role in social resilience and humanitarian outreach, reinforcing how closely the group’s identity is tied to Taiwan’s public life. Taiwan’s foreign ministry used the anniversary to emphasize shared values of religious freedom, human rights, peace and fraternity. In that context, Turkson’s visit read as both a gesture of interfaith solidarity and a subtle reminder that Taiwan still uses religion, charity and international visitors to assert its place on the world stage.