If Chen doesn’t go to this thing I won’t vote for him next time… :eh:
Or me! And I don’t need a visa! 
Seriously, A-Bian should go. And, of course the Italians will give him whatever visa he needs.
Considering the amount of cash the Catholic community in Taiwan has sent to Rome over the years, I think they can invite CSB and tell Beijing to sod off.
Then again, if the Vatican is going to snub Taiwan by de-recognizing, they can sod off.
I wonder what would happen if the whole world sodded off at once.
Saving 1.3 billion souls obviouslly has more appeal than a mere 20 million. The papists know their role 
Well, given the fact thast China will see anything done by the Holy See as foreign interference, I can’t really see what’s in it for the Holy See. At least they get to appoint bishops in Taiwan. I doubt they would be allowed to do so in China, recognizion or not.
[quote=“bob”]I wonder what would happen if the whole world sodded off at once.[/quote]I dunno bob. If you’re curious, why don’t you give it a go and we’ll let you know what difference it made. I figure about 10 years should be a long enough study period.
and more to the point
there are 13 million catholics in china - only 300,000 in taiwan.
Some disorganised thoughts:
[ol][li]A-Bian’s wife Wu Shuzhen has been to the Vatican and met the pope.
[/li]
[li]The Vatican has an embassy in Taibei but no ambassador. However, Taiwan does have an ambassador in the Vatican. Or am I misinformed?
[/li]
[li]I predict, but not with a great deal of confidence, that China will not compain about Italy issuing a visa to Chen Shuibian as long as it is only for transit.
[/li]
[li]If Chen Shuibian flew to Rome and then went to the Vatican by helicopter, he wouldn’t need an Italian visa, would he?[/li][/ol]
Nah, damn 'em all to hell’s inferno. 
They’ll have to add a tenth to Dante’s nine levels in order to have a special spot just for the bastards fingering the buttons on the missiles in Fujian. 
Just a shame that the Chinese authorities won’t let them save those 1.3 billion souls.
Stereotypical comment, but religion and Chinese don’t seem to mix well in my opinion. Once Chinese discover religion, they become overwrought. I wouldn’t mind the standard mind-mannered Methodist, but most Chinese who convert to one religion or another tend to fall into the “The power of christ compells you!” camp. I think this is one (of many) policy issues in which the government has screwed up on. The discouraging of missionary activity has simply led to the attraction of fundamentalists seeking to martyr themselves. Much ado has been made about the underground parishes in China and the disdain for the official state sanctioned Church. However, few people realize that the State Church is really quite moderate and mainstream while half the underground churches are fundamentalists and the other half are quasi-christian millenarian cults.
“Religion and Chinese don’t seem to mix well”? You realize the Chinese had their own religions looooooooooooooooooooooong before the CCP were around to make sure they didn’t go overboard, and that didn’t result in Chinese society imploding.
Anyway, I still say Chen should go, if just out of common courtesy. And if China don’t want him to go, well, stuff 'em, they can stew over it all they want.
coughTaipingRebellioncough
coughFalanGangcough
[quote=“Juba”]Some disorganised thoughts:
If Chen Shuibian flew to Rome and then went to the Vatican by helicopter, he wouldn’t need an Italian visa, would he?[/list][/quote]
Yes - as he would still need to pass through Italian Customs
I find your comment a bit racist.
Now let’s see… Chinese and religion. china was Buddhist from han dynasty and onwards. Most of the time hardly extreme, by the way.
Don’t forget Taoism, which is for most purposes a religion.
Also, what you are going on about is that first generation converts to any religion tend to be a bit more strong in their faith than say a guy like me, whose family has been christian for 30 odd generations.
Back on topic: it looks like he pulled it off.
I never thought the Italians would give him a visa, but they did it.
Even though sitting in a church with hundreds of people for a funeral will not give Chen a lot of opportunity to chat about Taiwan, it’s better than nothing. And it’ll make the “vaticanians” look worse if they want to go ahead and choose china over taiwan.
I say congrats to the folks who worked hard to arrange the trip.
An
Yes.
Stating the obvious: No.