TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – Pope Francis accepted a golden statuette of the goddess Mazu from the chair of Yunlin County’s Beigang Chao Tian Temple Wednesday (Sept. 25).

Tsai Yung-te (蔡咏鍀) said the present served as a memento of the encounter, per CNA. The temple hoped to function as a bridge of friendship between religions, he added.

The delegation left Beigang on Sept. 19 with a gold and a jade effigy of Mazu to hand over to the Pope at the Vatican, Taiwan’s only official diplomatic ally in Europe. To celebrate the 330^th anniversary of the temple, Tsai also traveled to San Francisco, Houston, New York, and the Japanese city of Aomori earlier in the year.

Mazu represents the values of world peace and goodwill, according to Tsai. The presence of the “Holy Mother of the East” at the Vatican amounted to opening a door to the world for Taiwan’s religions, he said.