Our World
(from CNEWA WORLD November – December 2002)
Pro Ecclesia Award to Peg Maron
Posted: 19 Nov 2002
Peg Maron, former Production Editor of CNEWA WORLD, received the Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice Cross from Edward Cardinal Egan, Archbishop of New York and Chairman of the Board of Trustees of Catholic Near East Welfare Association. The presentation took place on 18 November in the agency’s Manhattan office at 1011 First Avenue.
At the brief ceremony, Msgr. Robert L. Stern, Secretary General of CNEWA, summed up “the wonderful work Peggy” has done at CNEWA. A highlight, he said, was the oral history she compiled by interviewing retired staff members active in the early days of CNEWA. Her work at the papal agency, Msgr. Stern said, “was the crowning part of a lifetime of service to the church.”
In presenting the award to Mrs. Maron, Cardinal Egan read from the citation accompanying the medal that praised her “…outstanding work and conspicuous dedication to the needs of the church.”
The award, “For the Church and the Pontiff,” was established in 1888 in honor of the golden jubilee of Pope Leo XIII.
The medal bears the images of Sts. Peter and Paul, and Cardinal Egan commented on the coincidence of the award ceremony taking place on the feast of the Dedication of the Basilicas of Sts. Peter and Paul in Rome. “Didn’t we plan it that way, Monsignor?” he said to Msgr. Stern.
Mrs. Maron joined the Communications staff in 1990, was named Copy Editor in 1992 and Production Editor in 1993. She retired in January 2002. She has contributed many articles to the magazine, including a four-part series commemorating the 75th anniversary of the Association in 2001.
Before joining CNEWA, Mrs. Maron was on the staff of the Kennedy Child Study Center in Manhattan, taught at St. Francis of Assisi School in Brooklyn and worked in medical journalism. She worked as a freelance Copy Editor in the religion department of Holt, Rhinehart and Winston and also at Cross Currents, a religious journal.
She was active in American Pax, a Catholic peace movement cofounded by Eileen Egan in the early 1960s and served as secretary-treasurer until 1969. Mrs. Maron also served as a research assistant to Miss Egan on a book about refugees. Mrs. Maron is a member of the Downtown Brooklyn Chapter of Pax Christi.
On learning of her award, Mrs. Maron stated: “I am extremely grateful to be so honored for my small part in the work of the church. But I was never alone; I was always part of a community whose members worked side by side to improve the lives of those who had been entrusted to them. I would hope this award recognizes their contribution no less than mine.”
Mrs. Maron resides in Brooklyn and is a parishioner of St. Boniface. She tutors Chinese students in the English as a second language program at the parish and is a member of the parish Social Justice Committee.
Mrs. Maron was born in Manhattan and is a graduate of Barnard College there. Her husband, James, died in 1990 after 30 years of marriage. They have a son, Joseph, who lives in Rochester, New York.
Founded by Pope Pius XI in 1926, CNEWA is a special agency of the Vatican providing support to the churches and peoples of the Middle East, Northeast Africa, India and Eastern Europe. Projects include needy child, seminarian and novice sponsorship programs; village redevelopment; health care and education; and interfaith dialogue.