In the last several decades, the Middle East has faced a deep and at times violent transformation — which has impacted all. These upheavals, however, threaten the very existence of Christian and other vulnerable communities.
This report is designed to give readers a brief overview, by country, of the events that have impacted the peoples of the region and how Catholic Near East Welfare Association (CNEWA) is responding to the needs of the churches that serve them.
90 years in the Middle East
Pope Pius XI founded CNEWA in 1926 to accompany the Catholic Eastern churches and to bolster their pastoral and humanitarian endeavors in a time of great turmoil. Over the decades, CNEWA has intensified its presence in the Middle East to meet the needs of the church in her quest to witness to the Gospel of Jesus.
CNEWA has stood firm with the churches of the Middle East through times of strife, including most recently the invasion of Iraq in 2003; Israel’s war with Hezbollah in Lebanon in 2006; the wars in Gaza; the rise of the Arab Spring in late 2010; and the tsunami of wars, conflict and persecution that have since followed.
Thanks to the support of our donors throughout the world, CNEWA reaches hundreds of thousands affected by violence, poverty and discrimination — not just in the Middle East, but throughout the lands of the Eastern churches, including India, Northeast Africa and Eastern Europe.