Syrian refugees in the Bekaa valley of Lebanon in 2018. / Credit: Melkite Greek Archeparchy of Furzol, Zahle and the Bekaa
CNA Staff, Feb 14, 2025 / 14:00 pm (CNA).
A major global Catholic aid group says the recent funding cuts at the U.S. government will not affect its globe-spanning ministries in India, Africa, and elsewhere.
Catholic Near East Welfare Association (CNEWA) said in a Thursday press statement that the Trump administration’s slashing of funding for the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) “will neither curtail nor limit” the group’s ministries across several continents.
CNEWA serves communities “scattered throughout the historic but unstable lands of the ancient Eastern churches” — specifically in the Middle East, northeast Africa, India, and Eastern Europe.
The group distributes emergency relief to churches that require it while also supporting the formation and development of Church leaders including clergy and religious. It supports communities ranging from the Syro-Malabar Catholic Church in India to the Coptic, Eritrean, and Ethiopian Catholic Churches in Africa.
CNEWA president Monsignor Peter Vaccari said on Thursday that the group’s work “is in no danger of being halted” after the USAID cuts, which have caused chaos among religious aid and nonprofit groups who have relied heavily on the funds for their budgets.
Vaccari said the broader concern of the funding cuts is not for CNEWA but for the churches and communities the group serves.
“The generosity of the American people is extraordinary, and the U.S. government has been a major source of humanitarian aid, providing essential services throughout CNEWA’s world,” he said in the release.
The priest said the group strives “to avoid the current globalization of indifference.” He thanked supporters “for being with us as we touch countless lives in incalculable ways, always mindful of the great command of Jesus in the parable of the good Samaritan: ‘Go and do likewise.’”
‘The Church remains present’
CNEWA spokesman Michael La Civita told CNA on Friday that the group is anticipating a major spike in aid requests as funding dries up at the regional level.
The majority of CNEWA’s funding comes from private donations, he said. But the communities they serve are heavily dependent on foreign aid.
“Where we work, the fallout is significant,” he said. “Even though it may be temporary, the aid has stopped.”
There are “large populations where we work — say for example Lebanon or Jordan — where about half the population is refugees,” he said. Those communities are “dependent on foreign assistance, whether it’s through the United Nations or through organizations that are funded by foreign entities like the United States.”
The cessation of funding, he said, means medicine and health care and foodstuffs and other critical aid will dry up as well.
“What will happen, and what is already happening, is that the requests for assistance to make up for the shortfalls will be significant,” he said. Requests for aid are already increasing in Jordan and Lebanon, he said, as well as in Ethiopia, where Catholic Relief Services — a major recipient of USAID funding — has been active in food distribution.
La Civita said fundraising in the current environment is “getting increasingly more difficult,” though he said that Americans, especially American Catholics, are “extremely generous.”
“We have a history of understanding that as Catholics, we’re not members of a congregation but members of a worldwide communion of churches and communities,” he said. “That’s something our people have understood only all too well, and they’ve been very generous.”
“Ultimately, I have hope — great hope — that American Catholics will continue to help us live out the Gospel and continue with their generosity,” he said.
CNEWA was founded by Pope Pius XI in 1926. Its humanitarian and outreach efforts include scholarships for priests and funds for repairing churches as well as more diverse initiatives including poultry farms for religious sisters in Eritrea and youth ministry programs in Israel.
La Civita said the Church will remain active at the forefront of the present crisis.
“The Church doesn’t shut down when there are pandemics, and it doesn’t move out when there is no money,” he said.
“The Church remains, and it remains present, as do the people it serves. And so they’re going to reach out to us,” he said.
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