ROC president Chen Shui-bian was invited by the Vatican to attend the Pope's funeral on April 8. When President Chen left Taiwan for the Vatican on the afternoon of April 7, he turned another leaf in Taiwan's diplomatic history as the first incumbent ROC president to set foot in Europe in almost half a century.
4 月 8 日舉行追思彌撒，總統陳水扁獲得教廷邀請出席，於台北時間 4 月 7 日下午啟程前往梵蒂岡，成為近半世紀以來第一位踏上歐洲領土的中華民國現任總統，為我國外交再創新頁。