awareness and funds for the Catholic Union, which advocated for the reunion of the Catholic and Orthodox churches, which popes Benedict XV and Pius XI enthusiastically promoted. Relief and reunion were not mutually exclusive and, in March 1926, with the urging of members of the U.S. Catholic hierarchy, the pope combined these two organizations into a single papal agency with its board of directors chaired ex officio by the archbishop of New York. The pope retained the name Catholic Near East Welfare Association, thereby centralizing and strengthening the various efforts of the Eastern churches throughout what was then called the Near East. Nearly a quarter of a century after Pope Pius XI founded CNEWA, his successor appointed CNEWA’s Msgr. Thomas J. McMahon as president of an ad hoc task force of the Holy See to coordinate worldwide Catholic aid for Palestinian refugees, hundreds of thousands of whom had fled their homes after the hasty departure of British troops from Mandatory Palestine in 1948. Pius XII placed the leadership and administration of Pontifical Mission under CNEWA, and his successors have extended and made permanent its mandate for the needs of all vulnerable people throughout the Middle East. Relief and reunion, in a nutshell, describes the narrative of this agency of healing and hope these past 100 years. And in times where nothing is certain but continued division, chaos and conflict, CNEWA remains a beacon of hope, a leaven for unity, communion and fraternity. An integral component of the bishop of Rome as the successor of Peter as pontifex maximus — the ultimate bridge builder — CNEWA continues to counter modern society and its exploitation of
humanity’s inherent differences, whether by nationality, ethnicity, religion, politics or culture. Instead, CNEWA takes another path, one urged by our present pontiff, “with our sister Christian churches, with those who follow other religious paths, with those who are searching for God, with all women and men of good will, in order to build a new world where peace reigns! … “Together, as one people, as brothers and sisters, let us walk toward God and love one another.” n Executive editor Michael J. La Civita is director of communications and marketing. 100 YEARS OF HEALING & HOPE
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