TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — With politics set aside, well-wishers gathered to wish the Taipei zoo’s oldest giant panda a happy 20th birthday.
Visitors crowded around Yuanyuan's enclosure to take photos of her with a birthday cake in the shape of the number 20.
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People take photos during Panda Yuanyuan''s 20-years-old birthday party at the Taipei Zoo in Taipei, Taiwan, Friday, Aug. 30, 2024. Yuanyuan was a gift from China to mark warming ties with Taiwan in 2008. (AP Photo/Chiang Ying-ying)
Panda Yuanyuan eats her birthday cake for her 20 years old at the Taipei Zoo in Taipei, Taiwan, Friday, Aug. 30, 2024. Yuanyuan was a gift from China to mark warming ties with Taiwan in 2008. (AP Photo/Chiang Ying-ying)
Panda Yuanyuan enjoys her birthday cake for her 20 years old at the Taipei Zoo in Taipei, Taiwan, Friday, Aug. 30, 2024. Yuanyuan was a gift from China to mark warming ties with Taiwan in 2008. (AP Photo/Chiang Ying-ying)
People take photos during Panda Yuanyuan''s 20-years-old birthday party at the Taipei Zoo in Taipei, Taiwan, Friday, Aug. 30, 2024. Yuanyuan was a gift from China to mark warming ties with Taiwan in 2008. (AP Photo/Chiang Ying-ying)
People take photos during Panda Yuanyuan''s 20-years-old birthday party at the Taipei Zoo in Taipei, Taiwan, Friday, Aug. 30, 2024. Yuanyuan was a gift from China to mark warming ties with Taiwan in 2008. (AP Photo/Chiang Ying-ying)
People take photos during Panda Yuanyuan''s 20-years-old birthday party at the Taipei Zoo in Taipei, Taiwan, Friday, Aug. 30, 2024. Yuanyuan was a gift from China to mark warming ties with Taiwan in 2008. (AP Photo/Chiang Ying-ying)
Panda Yuanyuan enjoys her birthday cake for her 20th birthday at the Taipei Zoo in Taipei, Taiwan, Friday, Aug. 30, 2024. Yuanyuan was a gift from China to mark warming ties with Taiwan in 2008. (AP Photo/Chiang Ying-ying)
Panda Yuanyuan enjoys her birthday cake for her 20th birthday at the Taipei Zoo in Taipei, Taiwan, Friday, Aug. 30, 2024. Yuanyuan was a gift from China to mark warming ties with Taiwan in 2008. (AP Photo/Chiang Ying-ying)
People take photos during Panda Yuanyuan''s 20-years-old birthday party at the Taipei Zoo in Taipei, Taiwan, Friday, Aug. 30, 2024. Yuanyuan was a gift from China to mark warming ties with Taiwan in 2008. (AP Photo/Chiang Ying-ying)
Panda Yuanyuan eats her birthday cake for her 20 years old at the Taipei Zoo in Taipei, Taiwan, Friday, Aug. 30, 2024. Yuanyuan was a gift from China to mark warming ties with Taiwan in 2008. (AP Photo/Chiang Ying-ying)
Panda Yuanyuan eats her birthday cake for her 20 years old at the Taipei Zoo in Taipei, Taiwan, Friday, Aug. 30, 2024. Yuanyuan was a gift from China to mark warming ties with Taiwan in 2008. (AP Photo/Chiang Ying-ying)
Yuanyuan was born in China and arrived in 2008 with her partner Tuantuan. He died in 2022 at age 18 but not before fathering two female cubs, Yuanzai and Yuanbao, now 11 and 4 respectively and still living at the zoo.
Danielle Shu, a 20-year-old Brazilian student in Taiwan, said she found online clips of the pandas an enjoyable distraction. “And I just find it really funny and cute,” Shu said.
Giant pandas are native only to China, and Beijing bestows them as a sign of political amity. Yuanyuan and Tuantuan arrived in Taiwan during a period of relative calm between the sides, which split amid civil war in 1949. China claims the island its own territory, to be annexed by military force if necessary.
Faced with declining habitat and a notoriously low birthrate, giant panda populations have declined to around 1,900 in the mountains of western China, while 600 pandas live in zoos and breeding centers in China and around the world.
People take photos during Panda Yuanyuan''s 20-years-old birthday party at the Taipei Zoo in Taipei, Taiwan, Friday, Aug. 30, 2024. Yuanyuan was a gift from China to mark warming ties with Taiwan in 2008. (AP Photo/Chiang Ying-ying)
Panda Yuanyuan eats her birthday cake for her 20 years old at the Taipei Zoo in Taipei, Taiwan, Friday, Aug. 30, 2024. Yuanyuan was a gift from China to mark warming ties with Taiwan in 2008. (AP Photo/Chiang Ying-ying)
Panda Yuanyuan enjoys her birthday cake for her 20 years old at the Taipei Zoo in Taipei, Taiwan, Friday, Aug. 30, 2024. Yuanyuan was a gift from China to mark warming ties with Taiwan in 2008. (AP Photo/Chiang Ying-ying)
People take photos during Panda Yuanyuan''s 20-years-old birthday party at the Taipei Zoo in Taipei, Taiwan, Friday, Aug. 30, 2024. Yuanyuan was a gift from China to mark warming ties with Taiwan in 2008. (AP Photo/Chiang Ying-ying)
People take photos during Panda Yuanyuan''s 20-years-old birthday party at the Taipei Zoo in Taipei, Taiwan, Friday, Aug. 30, 2024. Yuanyuan was a gift from China to mark warming ties with Taiwan in 2008. (AP Photo/Chiang Ying-ying)
People take photos during Panda Yuanyuan''s 20-years-old birthday party at the Taipei Zoo in Taipei, Taiwan, Friday, Aug. 30, 2024. Yuanyuan was a gift from China to mark warming ties with Taiwan in 2008. (AP Photo/Chiang Ying-ying)
Panda Yuanyuan enjoys her birthday cake for her 20th birthday at the Taipei Zoo in Taipei, Taiwan, Friday, Aug. 30, 2024. Yuanyuan was a gift from China to mark warming ties with Taiwan in 2008. (AP Photo/Chiang Ying-ying)
Panda Yuanyuan enjoys her birthday cake for her 20th birthday at the Taipei Zoo in Taipei, Taiwan, Friday, Aug. 30, 2024. Yuanyuan was a gift from China to mark warming ties with Taiwan in 2008. (AP Photo/Chiang Ying-ying)
People take photos during Panda Yuanyuan''s 20-years-old birthday party at the Taipei Zoo in Taipei, Taiwan, Friday, Aug. 30, 2024. Yuanyuan was a gift from China to mark warming ties with Taiwan in 2008. (AP Photo/Chiang Ying-ying)
Panda Yuanyuan eats her birthday cake for her 20 years old at the Taipei Zoo in Taipei, Taiwan, Friday, Aug. 30, 2024. Yuanyuan was a gift from China to mark warming ties with Taiwan in 2008. (AP Photo/Chiang Ying-ying)
Panda Yuanyuan eats her birthday cake for her 20 years old at the Taipei Zoo in Taipei, Taiwan, Friday, Aug. 30, 2024. Yuanyuan was a gift from China to mark warming ties with Taiwan in 2008. (AP Photo/Chiang Ying-ying)
AJACCIO, Corsica (AP) — Pope Francis on the first papal visit ever to the French island of Corsica on Sunday called for a dynamic form of laicism, promoting the kind of popular piety that distinguishes the Mediterranean island from secular France as a bridge between religious and civic society.
Speaking at the close of a Mediterranean conference on popular piety, Papa Francescu, as he is called in Corsican, described a concept of secularity “that is not static and fixed, but evolving and dynamic,” that can adapt to “unforeseen situations” and promote cooperation “between civil and ecclesial authorities.”
The pontiff said that expressions of popular piety, including processions, communal payer of the Holy Rosary, “can nurture ‘constructive citizenship’ on the part of Christians. At the same time, he warned against such manifestations being seen only in terms of folklore, or even superstition.
During off-the-cuff remarks, the pope relayed his experience attending a festival in northern Argentina before his pontificate where he witnessed the importance of popular piety for the faithful “that seeks a healthy complicity.”
The visit to Corsica’s capital Ajaccio, birthplace of Napoleon, is one of the briefest of his papacy beyond Italy’s borders, just about nine hours on the ground, including a 40-minute visit with French President Emmanuel Macron.
Francis was joined on the dais by the bishop of Ajaccio, Cardinal Francois-Xavier Bustillo, who organized the conference that brought together some 400 participants from Spain, Sicily, Sardinia and southern France. The two-day meeting examined expressions of faith that often occur outside formal liturgies, such as processions and pilgrimages.
Often specific to the places where they are practiced, popular piety in Corsica includes the cult of the Virgin Mary, known locally as the "Maddunuccia," which protected the island from the plague in 1656 when it was still under Genoa.
Corsica stands out from the rest of secularized France as a particularly devout region, with 92 confraternities, or lay associations dedicated to works of charity or piety, with over 4,000 members.
“It means that there is a beautiful, mature, adult and responsible collaboration between civil authorities, mayors, deputies, senators, officials and religious authorities,’’ Ajaccio Cardinal François-Xavier Bustillo told The Associated Press ahead of the visit. “There is no hostility between the two. And that is a very positive aspect because in Corsica there is no ideological hostility.”
The visit was awash in signs of popular piety. The pope was greeted by children in traditional garb and was continually serenaded by bands, choruses and singing troupes that are central to Corsican culture from the airport, to the motorcade route, convention center and cathedral. Thousands stood along the roadside to greet the pontiff and more waved from windows.
Renè Colombani traveled with 2,000 others by ship from northern Corsica to Ajaccio, on the western coast, to see the pope.
“It is an event that we will not see again in several years. It may be the only time that the pope will come to Corsica. And since we wanted to be a part of it, we have come a long way″ Colombani said.
The island, which Genoa ceded to France in 1768, is located closer to the Italian mainland than France.
From the conference, the pope traveled to the 17th-century cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta to meet with clergy, stopping along the way at the statue of the Maddunuccia.
Francis will later celebrate Mass at the Place d’Austerlitz park, where it is said Napoleon played as a child. Around 7,000 faithful are expected. He will meet privately with Macron at the airport before departing for the 50-minute flight back to Rome.
They are expected to talk about the world’s crisis, including wars in the Middle East and Ukraine, and environment and climate-related issues, Macron's office said.
The pontiff pointedly did not make the trip to Paris earlier this month for the pomp surrounding the reopening of the Notre Dame Cathedral following the devastating 2019 fire. The visit to Corsica seems far more suited to Francis’ priorities than a grand cathedral reopening, emphasizing the “church of the peripheries.”
It is Francis’ third trip to France, each time avoiding Paris and the protocols that a state visit entails. He visited the port of Marseille in 2023, on an overnight visit to participate in an annual summit of Mediterranean bishops, and went to Strasbourg in 2014 to address the European Parliament and Council of Europe.
Corsica is home to more than 340,000 people and has been part of France since 1768. But the island has also seen pro-independence violence and has an influential nationalist movement, and last year Macron proposed granting it limited autonomy.
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Associated Press writers Colleen Barry in Milan and Sylvie Corbet in Paris contributed to this report.
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Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.
Faithful wait for the arrival of Pope Francis in Ajaccio on the occasion of his one-day visit in the French island of Corsica, Sunday, Dec. 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)
Pope Francis greets faithful after praying in front of the statue of the Virgin Mary in Ajaccio on the occasion of his one-day visit in the French island of Corsica, Sunday, Dec. 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)
Pope Francis blows a candle as he prays in front of the statue of the Virgin Mary in Ajaccio on the occasion of his one-day visit in the French island of Corsica, Sunday, Dec. 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)
Pope Francis greets faithful after praying in front of the statue of the Virgin Mary in Ajaccio on the occasion of his one-day visit in the French island of Corsica, Sunday, Dec. 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)
Pope Francis gestures near the Notre Dame of the Assumption cathedral Sunday, Dec. 15, 2024 in Ajaccio, Corsica island. Pope Francis' one-day visit to the French island of Corsica puts a dual focus on the Mediterranean, highlighting local traditions of popular piety on the one hand and migrant deaths and wars on the other. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)
Pope Francis greets faithful as he arrives outside the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Assumption of Ajaccio on the occasion of his one-day visit in the French island of Corsica, Sunday, Dec. 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)
Faithful wait for the arrival of Pope Francis outside the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Assumption of Ajaccio on the occasion of his one-day visit in the French island of Corsica, Sunday, Dec. 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)
Faithful greet Pope Francis arriving outside the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Assumption of Ajaccio on the occasion of his one-day visit in the French island of Corsica, Sunday, Dec. 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)
Faithful wave for Pope Francis Sunday, Dec. 15, 2024 in Ajaccio, Corsica island. Pope Francis' one-day visit to the French island of Corsica puts a dual focus on the Mediterranean, highlighting local traditions of popular piety on the one hand and migrant deaths and wars on the other. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)
Pope Francis gestures near the Notre Dame of the Assumption cathedral Sunday, Dec. 15, 2024 in Ajaccio, Corsica island. Pope Francis' one-day visit to the French island of Corsica puts a dual focus on the Mediterranean, highlighting local traditions of popular piety on the one hand and migrant deaths and wars on the other. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)
Faithful wait for the arrival of Pope Francis at the Baptistery of St. Jean in Ajaccio during the Pontiff one-day visit in the French island of Corsica, Sunday, Dec. 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)
Pope Francis arrives at Ajaccio International Airport on the occasion of his one-day visit in the French island of Corsica, Sunday, Dec. 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)
A woman holds a placard reading: "Welcome, 108 year's old the eldest of Ajaccio" as she waits for the arrival of Pope Francis at the Baptistery of St. Jean in Ajaccio during the Pontiff one-day visit in the French island of Corsica, Sunday, Dec. 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)
Pope Francis greets the journalists aboard his flight bound for Corsica for his apostolic journey in Ajaccio, Sunday, Dec. 15, 2024. (Remo Casilli/Pool Via AP)
Pope Francis arrives at Ajaccio International Airport on the occasion of his one-day visit in the French island of Corsica, Sunday, Dec. 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)
Pope Francis arrives at Ajaccio International Airport on the occasion of his one-day visit in the French island of Corsica, Sunday, Dec. 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)
Pope Francis is welcomed by children as he arrives at Ajaccio International Airport on the occasion of his one-day visit in the French island of Corsica, Sunday, Dec. 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)
Workers set up the altar prior to Pope Francis' visit, in Ajaccio, in the southern French island of Corsica, Saturday, Dec. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)
A woman carries bags bearing the Pope Franci' image prior to Pope's visit, in Ajaccio, in the southern French island of Corsica, Saturday, Dec. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)
A man sits in the chair that the Pope Francis will use to celebrate a mass on Sunday, for a photo souvenir, in Ajaccio, in the southern French island of Corsica, Saturday, Dec. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)
People walk near the seafront of Ajaccio prior to Pope Francis' visit, in the southern French island of Corsica, Saturday, Dec. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)
People walk past a mural featuring Pope Francis prior to the Pope's visit, in Ajaccio, in the southern French island of Corsica, Saturday, Dec. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)
People walk past a mural featuring Pope Francis prior to the Pope's visit, in Ajaccio, in the southern French island of Corsica, Saturday, Dec. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)
People walk past a mural featuring Pope Francis prior to the Pope's visit, in Ajaccio, in the southern French island of Corsica, Saturday, Dec. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)
Pope Francis boards an airplane at Rome's Fiumicino, airport as he leaves for his one-day visit to Ajaccio in he French island of Corsica, Sunday, Dec.15, 2024. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)
Pope Francis boards an airplane at Rome's Fiumicino, airport as he leaves for his one-day visit to Ajaccio in he French island of Corsica, Sunday, Dec.15, 2024. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)
Pope Francis boards an airplane at Rome's Fiumicino, airport as he leaves for his one-day visit to Ajaccio in he French island of Corsica, Sunday, Dec.15, 2024. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)
