Pontifical Mission for Palestine
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| Abbreviation | CNEWA |
|---|---|
| Established | 11 March 1926 |
| Type | 501(c)(3) nonprofit charity |
| Status | Active |
| Headquarters | New York City |
| President | Msgr. John E. Kozar |
| Board Chair | Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan |
| Revenue |
$28,674,931 (2016) |
| Website | www.cnewa.org |
$28,674,931 (2016)
The Catholic Near East Welfare Association (CNEWA) is a papal agency established in 1926 and dedicated to giving pastoral and humanitarian support to Northeast Africa, the Middle East, Eastern Europe, and India. CNEWA operates specifically in areas of concentrated mass poverty, war, and displacement, providing human dignity and addressing basic needs for vulnerable populations. As a Catholic organization CNEWA utilizes the network of Eastern Catholic Churches and devoted religious sisters in order to provide the most effective and holistic humanitarian support regardless of creed or religious affiliation. As sisters with CNEWA have stated, “We don’t help people because they’re Christian. We help [them] because we are.”
CNEWA’s regional offices employ natives who collaborate with local churches and Christian institutions to identify needs and implement solutions as a means of ‘working from the ground up.’ CNEWA has held a presence in areas that have been recently volatile, such as Syria, Iraq, and Palestine, and its operations respond rapidly to the constantly-shifting needs of the people. With a 95.43 rating on Charity Navigator, CNEWA provides 86.6% of its funds raised for programmatic support.
In the wake of the destruction of World War I , Pope Benedict XV and later Pope Pius XI, recognized the great need for spiritual and material aid across Europe. This push for relief was specifically oriented towards Russia and Eastern Europe as they experienced a series of famines between 1921-1923.
In 1924, a dynamic Irish chaplain who had served British troops during World War I, Msgr. Richard Barry-Doyle arrived in New York at the behest of Father Paul Wattson, a Franciscan Friar of the Atonement, who enlisted the priest to raise funds for the humanitarian activities of Greek Catholic Bishop George Calavassy , the apostolic exarch in Constantinople.
In 1926, Pope Pius XI united Catholic organizations working in the region under the “Catholic Near East Welfare Association,” centralizing and strengthening Catholic relief. Rather than being specifically oriented to Russia, the organization rapidly expanded to cover the entirety of what was then known as the “Near East.”
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