AP Photo

For Taiwan, it was a rare and cherished moment of diplomacy: On Tuesday, President Ma Ying-jeou sat with his wife among the political leaders as newly installed Pope Francis celebrated his inaugural Mass at the Vatican. Owing to alphabetic order, the leader of the Republic of China, Taiwan’s official name, was seated next to Chilean President Sebastian Pinera and Laura Chinchilla, president of Costa Rica, a country with which Taiwan had diplomatic relations until 2007, when it switched from Taipei to Beijing.