CNEWA is all about connection — with beneficiaries, with partners across the globe and with the donors and friends who make it all possible. As such, education, awareness-raising and community-building are essential components of carrying out CNEWA’s mission.
To spread the word about the mission and work of CNEWA, Msgr. Peter I. Vaccari, president, visited the Archdiocese of Cincinnati from 10 to 13 February and the dioceses of St. Augustine and Palm Beach in Florida from 29 February to 3 March. Tresool Singh-Conway, chief financial officer, accompanied Msgr. Vaccari on both visits and Thomas Varghese, director of programs, joined the delegation in Florida.
The highlight of these visits, they agreed, was sharing with new audiences how CNEWA translates the Gospel into action — action that encourages people to come together and help however they can.
“It’s living out the Gospel,” said Msgr. Vaccari. He added it is a “privilege to preach and to let people know how the Gospel is connected and can be connected in real life. CNEWA is an example of how you can do it.”
Although it is important to pray and go to church, he said, “it doesn’t mean anything if that’s where it ends.”
In Cincinnati, Msgr. Vaccari and Mrs. Singh-Conway presented at Mount Notre Dame High School and Xavier University, and participated in radio interviews with Sacred Heart Radio. Additionally, Msgr. Vaccari concelebrated Masses at St. Mary Parish.
Mrs. Singh-Conway said the visits are “a beautiful feeling.”
“It reinforces the fact we must tell our story,” she said. “We have an important job, an important mission, and there are so many people who want to embrace that along the way. We just need to get to them, and this is really an effective way of doing it.”
The visit to Florida included stops at Bishop Kenny High School in Jacksonville, Our Lady of Florida Spiritual Center in North Palm Beach, the Knights of Columbus, and Masses at St. Patrick Parish in Palm Beach Gardens.
Mr. Varghese pointed to Msgr. Vaccari’s homilies in which he related CNEWA’s work to the Gospel story of the woman at the well. Msgr. Vaccari raised the question of how, as followers of Christ, we may reach our neighbor and help them fill their bucket with water, said Mr. Varghese.
“The church was filled with 750 people,” he said. “Not that all of them can go carry a bucket all the way to a foreign land, but the little thing which you can do, it’s maybe a small drop.”
“We accumulate all these little drops and we send them across to these places where … we enable that they can get a bucket of water,” he said. “CNEWA is the conduit.”
Msgr. Vaccari has more diocesan visits planned for this year, including to the Archdiocese of Louisville this weekend.