CNEWA launches new Spanish-language website, November prayer campaign

NEW YORK (CNS) -- Catholic Near East Welfare Association has launched a Spanish-language website -- https://cnewa.org/es -- which coincides with a prayer campaign through the month of November.
A CNEWA news release said friends and benefactors of the Vatican agency are invited to share the names of those loved ones who have died to be remembered in November in the daily Masses celebrated by Msgr. Peter I. Vaccari, the agency's president.
The names of those who have died will be placed on the altar in CNEWA's chapel at its U.S. headquarters in the New York borough of Manhattan.
"We are pleased to offer this prayerful opportunity to Latino Catholics, and to provide a new resource that will be an ever-evolving platform introducing the world of the Eastern churches to the country's growing Latino population," Msgr. Vaccari said in a statement.
The November prayer campaign marks CNEWA's first outreach to Latinos and Spanish-speaking Catholics in the United States, who make up about a third of the estimated 70 million Catholics in the nation.
During the entire month of November, Catholics worldwide pray for the dead. Known as the Month of the Holy Souls, it begins with All Saints' Day Nov. 1 and All Souls' Day Nov. 2. This Catholic custom does not end at the end of the month, but is a daily practice for many.
"The Eastern churches, Catholic and Orthodox, are not unknown to Central and South Americans," Msgr. Vaccari said. "Substantial communities of Eastern Christians have emigrated from Eastern Europe and the Middle East to Argentina, Chile, Honduras, Mexico and Venezuela for more than a century."
CNEWA works for and with the Eastern churches in the Middle East, Northeast Africa, Indian and Eastern Europe.
Founded by Pope Pius XI in 1926, the agency provides aid to religious sisters caring for children in need; helps displaced and refugee families; offers health care to those most in need; supports the formation and education of seminarians, religious sisters and catechetical leaders; sponsors catechesis programs for children and young adults; and funds initiatives for the marginalized, especially the elderly and those with special needs.