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JOURNEY TO TAIWAN BY THE SACERDOTAL COUNCIL OF CAO ĐAI TAY NINH HOLY SEE (PART 4)

JOURNEY TO TAIWAN BY THE SACERDOTAL COUNCIL OF CAO ĐAI TAY NINH HOLY SEE (PART 4)

Updated 2013-08-11 08:35:20

(Reported from Taipei on July 23^rd 2013 by Archbishop Thai Con Thanh and Archbishop Ngoc Hong Thanh – Pictures taken by Nguyen Tri Luc- Translated by Tuan Em)

Day 4 in Taipei (Tuesday July 23^rd 2013)

At 9:30am on July 23^rd 2013, the Caodai delegation came back to Tao Yuan Headquarters to participate at a seminar. There the Caodai delegates were greeted by His Excellency Chen, Chao-Chen in his 16^th floor office. After a round of tea, H.E Chen invited the delegation down to the 13^th floor to a meeting room where there were about 40 participants already present. In his opening remark, H.E Chen mentioned that he had the honor to meet Cardinal Thuong Tam Thanh and the Cao Dai delegation in Japan at the Oomoto Spring Festival. In that first meeting, he felt a deep impression in his heart about Cao Dai and today, from a far away Viet Nam, the Cardinal and his delegation accepted his invitation to come to Taiwan to participate at our Tao Yuan ceremony, so it was such an honor.

Then H.E Chen invited the Cardinal to speak. In about 40 minutes, the Cardinal gave a brief introduction on Cao Dai history and philosophy, its organization structure and religious ceremonies.

At the end, the Cardinal showed a 13-minute video presentation of the Cao Dai Tay Ninh Holy See and Cao Dai activities, depicting the annual ceremony commemorating the Goddess mother and the return ceremony of Ho-Phap Pham Cong Tac’s body from Phnom Penh back to the Holy See.

After the presentation, there were 6 questions from the audience and the Cardinal had answered them to everyone’s satisfaction.

H.E Chen then presented a special gift, which was a big Chinese character painted on a red paper. He explained that in the seance session yesterday, Lao Tzu had written this special Chinese word to present to the Cao Dai delegation. This word in Chinese means “HAPPINESS”. Also, in this same drawing there was also the words “CAO ĐÀI CHÚNG TU”. A Tao Yuan dignitary then explained etymologically the word HAPPINESS, which was composed of the five characters “wealth, righteousness, longevity, perseverance and open-mind” and “CAO DAI CHUNG TU” litterally means Humanity follows Cao Dai’s principles.”

After a brief lunch, Cardinal Thuong Tam Thanh invited H.E Chen and his staff to come a a farewell dinner organized on that evening.

(To be continued)