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.
Lawyer Marina Perna was en route to Boston in 2020 when Msgr. Peter I. Vaccari, president of Catholic Near East Welfare Association, called her with a proposal to join CNEWA’s board of trustees, the first and only woman and layperson.
She wondered: “Why me? What do I have to bring to the table?”
Ms. Perna brings a history of varied experience. As a lawyer, she advised the Holy See’s Permanent Observer Mission to the United Nations for 10 years and currently volunteers her legal services for 10 seminaries.
“I have a love for the church,” she said. “I love the priests. I have always thought of the seminarians as my sons.”
She is also a member of the Patrons of the Arts in the Vatican Museums New Yok Chapter. Her varied volunteer work in the United States and overseas is summarized on CNEWA’s website simply as “global Catholic adviser.”
CNEWA is “unlike any organization that I have ever been involved with,” she said. Working with CNEWA is not just going to a meeting, an occasional Mass or reception, she said.
“It’s constantly evolving. There are full catastrophes happening around the world every day,” she says, citing events such as the mudslides in India or earthquakes in Turkey and Syria.
“We’re always there … trying to get there,” trying to help the people who remain “destitute and injured and without homes.”
Last year, CNEWA added another laywoman, philanthropist Amanda Bowman, to the board. They work in leading the papal organization with Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan, archbishop of New York and board chair, two other American prelates and two Canadian archbishops.
“We have lots of hours invested, from the board to the people who work in the offices all around the world,” Ms. Perna said. Often, she volunteers her legal skills to “help the churches in the East and to help the churches in Russia.”
CNEWA’s mission is about human beings, she says, and the organization’s work with children is especially gratifying.
“I want to try to bring people to CNEWA and instill a love for this organization that I love,” letting them know “how critical these works are and how every single penny matters.”
Ms. Perna earned her law degree from Seton Hall University in 1988 and was elected mayor of Belleville, New Jersey, at age 26. She founded her own law firm in 1991.
A member of the Neocatechumenal Way, which she says helps the poor, marginalized and suffering, she adds, “I am a catechist; I love to evangelize.”
Ms. Perna does not sit on the laurels of the philanthropic work she has done.
“Philanthropy doesn’t get you to heaven,” she says. “It’s too easy.”