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Permanent ObserverMission of the Holy See to the UnitedNations
Although the Holy See is not a member state of the United Nations, since
1964 it has had a Permanent Observer Mission to the United Nations in New
York. In 2004 the UN General Assembly passed a resolution by acclamation
strengthening the mission’s status. The Holy See now enjoys, among other
things, the right to participate in the general debate of the General Assembly,
the right of reply, the right to have its communications issued and circulated
directly as official documents of the assembly, and the right to co-sponsor draft
resolutions and decisions that make reference to the Holy See. In December
2006 Congress authorized the president to grant members of the observer
mission the same diplomatic immunity and privileges that the United States,
as host country, grants to UN ambassadors and their staffs.
Archbishop Bernardito C. Auza is apostolic nuncio and permanent
observer of the Holy See to the United Nations. The mission’s main phone
number is 212-370-7885. Its Web site is
www.holyseemission.org .Catholic Near EastWelfare Association (CNEWA)
Based in New York, CNEWA is a special agency of the Holy See, established
in the United States by Pope Pius XI in 1926 out of his concern for the post-
World War I humanitarian and religious needs in Russia and the Near East. It
supports the pastoral mission of the Eastern Catholic churches—the needs of
the churches, institutions and persons under the jurisdiction of the Vatican’s
Congregation for Eastern Churches and the Permanent Interdicasterial
Commission for the Church in Eastern Europe—and provides humanitarian
assistance to the needy and afflicted without regard to nationality or creed. It
seeks to promote Catholic-Orthodox unity and raises and distributes funds to
help meet the material and spiritual needs of the people it serves.
In 1949 Pope Pius XII formed the
Pontifical Mission for Palestine
,
under the direction of the general secretary of CNEWA, to help meet the
social and humanitarian needs of Palestinian refugees from the Arab-Israeli
conflict following the establishment of the Israeli state in 1948. Since then
CNEWA’s presence in the Middle East under the pontifical mission’s umbrella
has expanded significantly. Religion-related conflicts in Lebanon, Ethiopia and
other countries in the Middle East and North Africa, most recently Iraq, have
drawn CNEWA’s attention to relief and rebuilding in those nations as well.
In the establishment of both CNEWA and the Pontifical Mission for
Palestine, the Vatican relied on the postwar economic capabilities of American
Catholics, after two world wars when most of Europe was in economic sham-