This Taiwanese group met with Pope Francis after his General Audience. They are a delegation made up mainly of the Buddhist Federation and Taiwan conference on Religion and Peace.
During their meeting, Ven. Jing-Yao, Chairman of the Buddhist Association, presented this statue to the pope.
It is the Guanyin Bodhisattva. It is highly venerated in Chinese Buddhism believing she intercedes and protects them from disasters.
The Taiwan Conference on Religion and Peace also presented the pope these books to inform him what their organization has been doing these last two decades to overcome misunderstandings of different religions.
The group came to Rome to engage in religious dialogue and help promote peace across the world.
VEN. GUO-JUN
Buddhist
“We hope to bring about world peace.” “To bring together Christians, Islam and all the religions in the world to work together. This is because we believe it is now time for us to be more proactive.”
DANNI LIU
Secretary General, The T'ienti Teachings Association
“We wanted to come here and visit the pope to express our wish for peace among religions and also for world peace.”
Pope Francis has often called for peace among religions and across the world. In January 2019, during his trip to United Arab Emirates he signed “Human Fraternity: For World Peace and Living Together” along with The Grand Imam of Al-Azhar, Ahmad Al-Tayyeb.
He had this to say during his meeting with Buddhist as well as other religious leaders in Assisi in 2016 as a part of the World Day of Prayer for Peace.
POPE FRANCIS
“Our religious traditions are diverse. But our differences are not the cause of conflict and provocation, or a cold distance between us. We have not prayed against one another today, as has sometimes unfortunately occurred in history. Without syncretism or relativism, we have rather prayed side-by-side and for each other.”
This delegation from Taiwan hope Pope Francis can come to their country to help promote their cause for peace. If he goes he would be the first pope to visit Taiwan.
