Cardinals Turkson, Prefect of Vatican Dicastery for Integral Human Development, and Card. Bo of Yangon present. The mission of doctors and healthcare professionals to accompany the patient, judged "useless" by contemporary culture. The appreciation of Vice-President Chen Chien-jen.
Taipei (AsiaNews) - The new hospital of the Catholic University Fu Jen was inaugurated yesterday. The morning began with the Eucharistic celebration presided by the archbishop of Kaohsiung Peter Liu Cheng-chung (劉振忠 總 主教) and with the homily of Card. Peter Kodwo Appiah Turkson (樞機 主教 涂 克森), Prefect of the Vatican Dicastery for Integral Human Development.
Card. Charles Maung Bo (樞機 主教 薄 恩) of Yangon (Myanmar) and the Vice-President of Taiwan, the Catholic Chen Chien-jen (副 總統 陳建仁) also attended. The work for the new hospital began in 2011, with the blessing of the first stone by the late Card. Paul Shan.
Card. Turkson’s messgae was linked to the feast of the day, the holy archangels Raphael (‘God’s physician'), Gabriel ('God's strength') and Michele ('who is like God?'). He emphasized the mission of doctors and healthcare providers, to accompany patients, who are often judged "useless" by contemporary culture.
At the end of the celebration, Vice-President Chen, thanking everyone who made it possible for the new hospital to be built, recalled the cardinal's words, emphasizing the importance for human dignity.
Mayor Eric Chu (新 北 市長 朱立倫), who oversees New Taipei (新 北市), which covers the entire metropolitan area around the city of Taipei, where the Catholic University Fu Jen is located, said that with this hospital, in addition to precious and advanced medical research, it will also offer a great service to serve the surrounding areas of Xinzhuang (新 莊 區) and Taishan (泰山 區).
The University's president is Vincent Han-Sun Chiang (江漢 聲 校長). He is known as an excellent physician, pianist and fundraiser, and above all as an authority in the field of neurology. Together with the new vice-general manager Wang Shui Shen (王 水深 心臟 外科 主任) former director of the National Cardiology Department of the National University of Taiwan (NTUH, 台大 醫院), he has built an exceptional medical team to provide one of the best health services.
Vincent Han-Sun Chiang explained that the present number of students and institutional courses at Fu Jen's Faculty of Medicine outgrow those of the National University, with which there is still a strong collaboration. "We want to continue working - he added - to become Taiwan's best medical research center."
On the sidelines of the ceremony he then recounted: "My father, he was also a Urologist, served a long time in the National University of Taiwan hospital and taught me the value of excellence and medical mission. We want to work to provide health and dignity not only to the Taiwanese, but for the whole advancement of human kind in the medical field."
Vice President Chen Chien-jen is also a medical expert: he is a renowned epidemiologist (流行病學 家), famous for discovering the causes of "blackfoot disease" related to the level of arsenic present in water sources. He said he was satisfied and proud of the service that this new institution will offer in collaboration with all related universities in Asia and the whole world.
After the ceremony, Card. Turkson traveled to the south of the island in Kaohsiung for the 24th World Apostleship of the Sea Congress (第 24 屆 海洋 使徒 世界 大會), to be held next week from 1st to 7th October.