Postwar Work in Lebanon
Listening to church and community leaders, sorting out priorities, offering assistance and encouragement and seeing firsthand agency postwar relief efforts were the purposes of a CNEWA delegation that visited Lebanon 18-26 November.
The team — which included senior staff members Chorbishop John Faris, Carl Hétu and Michael La Civita — joined CNEWA’s Beirut staff on visits to southern Lebanon, including the villages of Deir Mimas, Klayaa, Marjeyoun and Yaroun, whose populations suffered heavily during the fighting this past summer between Israel and Hezbollah.
In addition to meeting regional bishops and community leaders, with whom CNEWA is coordinating its work, the team met with Maronite Patriarch Nasrallah, Armenian Apostolic Catholicos Aram I, Armenian Catholic Patriarch Nerses Bedros XIX and Greek Orthodox Metropolitan Elias Audi.
Women and Islam
The influence of Muslim women on society was the subject of a conference at Chicago’s St. Xavier University, held 11-12 November.
“We have proximity to such a large Muslim community,” said Mercy Sister Susan Sanders, conference coordinator. “The university can’t be in a community and ignore its neighbors.”
Topics discussed at the conference, called “Portraits of Women in Islam,” included Sufis in America, Muslim sexual ethics and Muslim women’s contributions to religious dialogue. CNEWA cosponsored the event.
Founded in 1846 by the Sisters of Mercy, St. Xavier University is the oldest university in Chicago.
Book Drive
In 2006, CNEWA shipped more than 12,000 used books to libraries in houses of formation and seminaries throughout the developing world. An assortment of theology, reference works, philosophy and literature, the books were contributed by colleges, universities, seminaries, high schools and individual donors in North America.
“This project started almost accidentally in the mid-1980’s,” said CNEWA Undersecretary General Brother David Carroll, F.S.C., who coordinates the program. “But through word of mouth, it has taken off.”
“We provide libraries — all of which have few resources — with the classics necessary for spiritual and intellectual formation.”
Among the institutions to receive the books were the Malankara Syrian Orthodox Seminary in Ernakulam, India; the Catholic University of Ukraine, in Lviv; Dharmaran College in Bangalore, India; and the Orthodox Faculty of Theology in Cluj-Napoca, Romania.
A Christmas Tradition
Continuing a longstanding tradition, Secretary General Msgr. Robert Stern joined the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Archbishop Michel Sabbah, in the Christmas celebrations in Bethlehem, where he offered Midnight Mass at the Church of the Nativity for the intentions of CNEWA benefactors.
A visit to the Holy Land at Christmas is not just to concelebrate Midnight Mass; Msgr. Stern paid courtesy calls on Catholic, Orthodox, Jewish and Muslim leaders in Israel, Palestine and Jordan.
Read all About it – in German
A German edition of ONE magazine will be published beginning this February by CNEWA’s sister agency in Europe, Catholica Unio Deutschland.
For the past year, editorial staff members in New York and Würzburg have been working on launching it.
Founded in Vienna in 1921 to encourage the reunion of the Catholic and Orthodox churches, Catholica Unio has purposes similar to CNEWA.
For the past few years, CNEWA and Catholica Unio, which has offices in Austria, Germany and Switzerland, have strengthened collaborative efforts, focusing on strategic planning and, in Germany, on promotional and fund-raising activities.
Talking Turkey
As a guest of the Eternal Word Television Network, Msgr. Stern provided live commentary and analysis during Pope Benedict XVI’s four-day apostolic journey to Turkey in late November.
Msgr. Stern joined EWTN News Director Raymond Arroyo in cohosting the live coverage, watched by viewers throughout North America, Europe and Asia. To help viewers understand the implications of the pope’s historic visit, Msgr. Stern discussed Catholic-Orthodox dialogue, ecclesiology and Christian-Muslim relations.