Editors’ Note: Pilgrims of Healing and Hope is a new series launched to commemorate the centennial of the founding of CNEWA in 1926 as a papal initiative of healing and hope.
From time to time, this series will profile the men and women whose time, treasure, talent — and faith — have brought to life this unique effort of the Holy See. For generations, their generosity in support of the works of the Eastern churches has empowered each community of faith as they strive to follow the lesson of the Good Samaritan to “go and do likewise,” helping to bind the wounds of a broken world.
Gregory Oussani was a senior in high school when Melkite Greek Catholic Patriarch Maximos V Hakim came to dinner at his family home in Brooklyn.
The patriarch was accompanied by Msgr. John Nolan, then national secretary of Catholic Near East Welfare Association. That evening was the beginning of Mr. Oussani’s long association with CNEWA, which continues to this day.
As a priest with Latin and Melkite Greek Catholic faculties, Msgr. Nolan would occasionally celebrate Divine Liturgy at Mr. Oussani’s childhood parish of the Virgin Mary in Park Slope. He remained in touch with Msgr. Nolan and his successors at CNEWA during his studies at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, after which he returned to Brooklyn to work in the family business, manufacturing office machines and air pollution sampling equipment.
“All along the years, I have supported CNEWA,” he said, by donating to various CNEWA projects and programs and corresponding with priests in the regions where CNEWA works.
However, it was after a trip to Lebanon, Jordan and Syria in 1999 that Mr. Oussani drew closer to the papal organization. He has family ties to Syria — his maternal grandparents and paternal grandmother were from Aleppo — so he was excited to visit. In addition, some fellow parishioners were in Aleppo visiting relatives, and he would visit with them after his tour schedule.
While in Aleppo, he met with Archbishop Jean-Clément Jeanbart, who led the Melkite Greek Catholic archeparchy there from 1995 to 2021, including during the first 10 years of the Syrian civil war and the four-year siege of the city.
The archbishop organized for Mr. Oussani to visit the site of a school he wanted built and asked Mr. Oussani to appeal to CNEWA for funds when he returned to New York. The school got built, and “CNEWA was instrumental in helping,” Mr. Oussani said.
The archbishop strove to support Christians, especially during the war, “and CNEWA was right behind him,” Mr. Oussani added.
Through the years, Mr. Oussani has been associated with several charitable organizations, serving as national chairman of the Order of St. Nicholas and treasurer of the New York chapter of the Patrons of the Arts in the Vatican Museums, but he says CNEWA has “always been close to my heart.”
“In my charity, I like to make sure — just bottom line — the organization is very efficient in how it distributes the charity,” he said. It helps to know the people — including beneficiaries from other countries who visit New York to report on how CNEWA helps them, he said.
“The way we are going to solve a lot of the problems of the world … is to change people’s hearts,” he said, adding that nothing changes hearts more than going to an area in strife and distributing “charitably, regardless of religion, regardless of nationality.”
“CNEWA does that probably as well as anyone out there.”