HUMANE. Humanitarian Aid, Politics and Religion: A Transnational History of the Catholic Near East Welfare Association from the 1920s to the present day

Axis 5 – Beliefs, Practices, and Religious Institutions

Project funded by the European Commission under Excellent Science – Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA-IF-GF – Global Fellowships), Horizon 2020

Section : Époques moderne et contemporaine
Director : Marie Levant (EFR-IFPO)

Acronyme : HUMANE

Grant agreement ID: 101032864

Presentation

This project examines the religious dimension of practice, conception and reception of modern humanitarianism between Europe, the US and the Middle East in the XX^th century up to recent times. It sheds light on the transnational Catholic networks to assist Middle Eastern populations after the First World War and the Armenian genocide. More specifically, it focuses on the Catholic Near East Welfare Association (CNEWA), which was founded in the United States in the early 1920s to help Eastern Christians, curb the influence of Protestantism and promote the conversion of Orthodox Christians. It also looks at the Pontifical Mission for Palestine (PMP), established in 1949 for Palestinian Christian refugees, before turning over the years into the executive agency of CNEWA in the Arab Middle East. Drawing upon a mass of unpublished archival documentation located in Lebanon, the Middle East, Europe and the United States, as well as fieldwork investigations, this research explores the entanglement between missionary issues, humanitarian efforts, and political agendas. In doing so, it enlightens the engagement of the papacy in the Levant, provides new insight on the refugee history and helps re-think the dynamics between religion and secularisation in the contemporary world.

Partners

Host Institution: École française de Rome (EFR)
Partner Institution: Institut français du Proche-Orient (Ifpo), Beirut
Funding: EU Commission, Horizon 2020

This project has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie grant agreement No: 101032864.

Research Fields

Religious Studies, History of Humanitarianism, Middle East Studies, Migration Studies, Mission Studies

Geography

Middle East

News

Launch Event Faire l'histoire de l'humanitaire au Moyen-Orient aujourd'hui, 23 March 2023, Ifpo-Beirut / EFR & Zoom

Expected Results

a workshop on the financial management of humanitarian aid (2023)
a webinar (2024)
several scientific events and journal articles
a book at the intersection of the multiple fields involved (2025)

Publications

Religion et humanitaire : renouveau historiographique et chantier des archives Pie XII, Journal Isssue, Mélanges de l’École française de Rome – Italie et Méditerranée modernes et contemporaines, 134/2, 2022 (journal issue edited with Nina Valbousquet)
Histoire croisée entre religion et humanitaire in Religion et humanitaire: renouveau historiographique et chantier des archives Pie XII, Journal Isssue, Mélanges de l’École française de Rome – Italie et Méditerranée modernes et contemporaines, 134/2, 2022, p. 187-207 (article with Nina Valbousquet)
Charity for Christian Unity: American Catholic and Vatican Relief Efforts in the Near East After World War I in Endowment Studies, 2022, 6 (1-2), p. 130-159 (article).
Le Vatican, acteur global au XX^e siècle: le tournant des années Pie XII (1939-1958), Journal Issue, Monde(s). Histoire, espaces, relations, 22, 2022 (journal issue edited with Laura Pettinaroli and Olivier Sibre).
Religions et migrations. Encadrer la foi, assister les exilés (XIX^e-XX^e siècle), Journal Issue, Diasporas. Religions et migrations, 39, 2022 (edition)
Encadrer la foi, assister les exilés. Jalons pour une socio-histoire des croisements entre religions et migrations (XIX^e-XX^e siècle) in Diasporas. Circulations, migrations, histoire, 39, 2022, p. 7-19 (article)