Taipei, July 10 (CNA) Eighty foreign missionaries with a combined experience of 2,938 years in Taiwan were commended by the Ministry of the Interior (MOI) in a ceremony Tuesday for their charitable contributions to the country.
Foreign missionaries have played important roles in comforting and supporting those in need of help, especially in remote areas, over the past 10 years in which Taiwan experienced the Sept. 21 earthquake of 1999, dramatic changes in social evolution and family dynamics, and an economic slump, said Premier Chang Chun-hsiung.
The Taiwan government recognized their contributions to Taiwan after 54 foreign missionaries were commended in 1997 for the first time, he said, adding that the government also granted permanent residency to 98 Catholic missionaries in 2004.
The commended missionaries had an average working experience in Taiwan of 37 years, with Spanish Jesuit missionary Jesus Zarandona the oldest at 95 years-old and Canadian priest Steven Beauregard with arecord 59 years of service in Taiwan, said Interior Minister Lee Yi-yang.
Most of these missionaries, who have been performing medical, educational and humanitarian work in small towns throughout Taiwan, have special and unique stories to tell. While most of them came to Taiwan in their early twenties, now they are aged between 50 and 90. Almost all of them are fluent in either Mandarin, Hoklo or Hakka, Lee said.
Zarandora, the son of a Spanish naval commander, came to Taiwan in 1953 and has never left. He helped establish St. Aloysius Technical High School in Hsinpu, Hsinchu County.
Sister Gloria Joan Watts, who first came to Taiwan in 1956, helped establish the first and only 24-hour clinic in Alishan and St. Martin De Porres Hospital, where she now serves as president, in Chiayi City. Father Brendan O'Connell, who came from the U.S., has spent 52 years in Taiwan and is widely regarded as one of the pioneers of Taiwan's special education.
Donald McGinnis, who came to Taiwan in 1953 and speaks fluent Hakka, Hoklo and Mandarin, described Hakka people and culture as his "first love." He was expelled from Taiwan by the Kuomintang government, and later from China by the Chinese government.
French missionaries Louis Pourrias and Claude Gagelin, who have been living in Hualien for over 40 years, love the indigenous culture and people so much that they spent 40 years compiling the first Amis-French Dictionary.
Swiss sister Germana Retzetter, who came to Taiwan in 1954 from China, has devoted all her energy to helping people in various small towns in Pingtung County.
Of the 80 religious workers, more than half come from the U.S., while 10 each come from France and Switzerland. The others come from Canada, Germany, Italy, Norway, Finland, Japan, Spain, the U.K., Congo, the Philippines and the Netherlands.