Rome (AsiaNews) - The Taiwanese Church "has grown in time, and has now become adult: the commitment of Catholics in society is increasing, and the formation of the clergy is increasingly taking place at the local level.  It should be enough to consider that, today, the seven bishops of the Taiwanese dioceses are all natives of the island".  This is the assessment provided for AsiaNews by Msgr. Ambrose Madtha, Vatican chargé d'affaires in Taiwan, who after five years and four months in Taipei has been appointed apostolic nuncio in Ivory Coast.  As for the future of Vatican diplomacy in Taiwan, Msgr. Madhta announces his successor: "the Vatican has already named my replacement: he is Msgr. Paul Fitzpatrick Russell, currently a counsellor at the apostolic nunciature in Nigeria".

The Church's "coming of age", the Vatican diplomat says, "can also be seen in the reduced number of foreign missionaries present in the territory: a fact that could be attributed to the reduction in vocations, but also to the greater penetration of Catholicism in the Taiwanese territory.  This is a reality that faces many challenges, first among them an increasingly evident 'Westernisation', but it is capable of finding its own answers in an autonomous manner".

Today, in fact, "Catholics are much more active in the social sphere: even if they are a small minority, about three percent of the population, they are a well-prepared group ready to speak their minds in the Church and the island.  Of course, here too a reduction in vocations can be seen, but presently the clergy is almost entirely made up of native Taiwanese, and these are seeds that will bear fruit with time".

Overall, he continues, "I am very satisfied with what has taken place, also in light of the Jubilee of the Taiwanese Church, the 150th anniversary of its first evangelisation, which begins next May 17 and continues until the feast of Christ the King".