By Michael J.L. La Civita

Last week I returned from the Caucasus, Armenia and Georgia specifically, after a two-week needs assessment visit for Catholic Near East Welfare Association, or CNEWA, which is an initiative of the Holy See working among the ancient churches of the East.

The first and second nations to have adopted the Christian faith officially — Armenia in the year 301 and neighboring Georgia some 18 years later — their peoples have long figured in the life of our agency. CNEWA’s roots lie in these lands soaked by the blood of martyrs as our first humanitarian efforts involved the rescue of survivors of the genocide of Armenians, Assyro-Chaldeans and other Christians in the Ottoman Turkish Empire after World War I.