教廷是一個性質極爲特殊的國家，它不追求政治、軍事、經濟、貿易等利益，它所所關切的是，如何將「天主是愛」的教義能在世界各地自由傳播，他關心世界各國人民的基本人權獲得保障，並享有充分選擇或不選擇宗教信仰的自由。爲達此目的，教廷的組織也與各國政府的組織有極大的不同。教廷重視文化事務，還特別設置了「教廷宗座文化委員會」(Pontifical Council for Culture)。探討文化在教廷的地位、教廷對文化的觀點、認識教廷主管文化事務部會的功能，以及我國與教廷文化交流實況，是作者撰寫本文的動機。作者於民國九十三年元月至九十七年九月擔任我國駐教廷大使，參與兩國文化交流活動，願將兩國文化交流的實況，藉本文加以介紹，並爲我國與教廷的文化交流成果作一見證。
The Holy See, by nature, is enirely different from other countries of the world. The Holy See seeks no political, military, economic, nor trade interests. Her major concerns consist of seeing that the doctrine of ”Deus Caritas Est” be evangelizedand practiced in everyone's life worldwideand that the fundamental human rightsof the people, religious freedom in particular, be respected in every country.In this sense, the structure of the ”Roman Curia” is quite different from the governmental structure of countries in general. Moreover, the Holy See regards highly the importance of culture and has created the ”Pontifical Council for Culture” to deal with cultural affairs.To better understand the importance of culture to the Holy See, the perspective of culture in the eyes of the Holy See, the main functions of the Pontifical Council for Culture and the implementation of cultural exchange between the Holy See and the Republic of China on Taiwan, has motivated the author to present this short paper.The author served as the Ambassador of the Republic of China to the Holy See from January 2004 to September 2008, during which time the author actively participated in the culture exchange between the two countries, so happily he was able to witness so many important cultural events related to the two countries.